Cazzy, The Devil's Mother

New Blog!

2010-10-01T03:04:00.000-07:00

Hi all

The devil's mother has been dormant for the last couple of years and has awakened to a new role - the Angel's Mother! Yes, I have finally succumbed to my natural calling and have settled down to become a doting wife and loving mother. I have the most gorgeous baby and wonderful husband any gal could ask for. So, without further ado, I am ending this devilish era and starting a new blog - please join me in my new adventures as I learn to become "A Mother to Angel Woki" http://wokidrool.blogspot.com

Toodles!!!

The craziest, best CD launch EVER!!!

2008-11-17T01:29:00.000-08:00

Yes, Torment's CD launch went well, very well, with a BANG! I have the pics, reviews, the dirrrrt, but you will have to wait till tomorrow. Im still suffering, heheh.

Later dudes.

Reminder: Torment CD Launch 14th November at Rock Domination

2008-11-13T11:32:00.000-08:00

Since Im off work tomorrow running around like a headless chicken plus including a much needed gym session (three times this week, wow, impressive hey?) I am going to remind you dingbats right now: Remember Remember the 14th of November. Because why? Because if you dont, I will donner you. OK, I wont, I cant even hurt a fly but I will be very disappointed. This will be an EPIC event, I kid you not.

What am I rambling on about? The Torment CD Launch "Not Your Grandmother's Shoes" at Rock Domination (at the Dome), starting at 19h00. Aptly themed the "Dark Carnival", everyone is encouraged to use their wildest imagination and dress up or down - prizes to be won. The event is also sponsored by Jagermeister, so there will be tons of it flowing around. There will also be tons of stuff on sale, including band merch, lots of drinks specials AND candyfloss and popcorn! Yay!

So here is the line-up with the time slots:

7-7.30 Spire
7.45-8.15 Namuh
8.30-9 Only Forever
9.15-9.45 Fragmented Childen
10-11 Torment
11.15-11h45 11th Hour

R30 bucks entrance or R50 bucks with a CD!!!R50 bucks for a cd normally!First 100 people get a signed copy!!!

OK, Im signing off now, got to finish sewing patches on my ultra cool customised takkies before I nod off. Cheerio. I better see you all there tomorrow night! Keep it metal :)

Carol can go home

2008-11-13T05:57:00.000-08:00

My dearest colleague wrote me a simple note this morning saying "Carol can go home" and gave it to my boss. He took one look at it, laughed and walked away. I shook my head in sadness. He just didnt understand.

I knew this was going to be a tough morning the moment I woke up, feeling as if I had just been asleep for 5 minutes. Having spent most of the night dreaming bullshit (it seemed like it was all night, though it could have been a mere few minutes), my mind was in overdrive and feeling restless. I dragged myself to the bathroom and went over all the things I had to do today.

As Im going through that list again right now, I am not even sure I have even accomplished half the things I needed to do today, and Im screwed as Im on leave tomorrow to prepare for Torment's CD launch. The fact that I wished repeatedly that I was in bed, did not help.

I spent a good three hours working on a report that my boss had asked for days ago (not my fault I took so long, I rely on others to source my information) and when I was almost done and wanted to compare to a previous report, I was baffled as to why the previous report's total figures were much higher than the latter one. It took one hour, a coffee break and a few more minutes after that to figure out that the last report was from the last financial year. Obviously figures will be higher. I smacked my forehead and sent out the report, feeling a bit daft but glad I had eventually figured out the problem.

Not even 5 minutes after I had sent it out to my whole team, one of my colleagues congratulated me on a job well done, the report was superb. That was a bee on my bonnet - which flew away a few seconds later when another dear soul came running to tell me that the profit figures were ridiculously inflated. I looked at him in despair and wanted to cry. I just couldnt win. But this time I figured out my problem almost instantly - I had swapped the turnover and profit figures by mistake. I really need to change this blonde hair of mine!

So, as a test, I waited before I re-sent the report to see how many people would pick up my mistake. My dear friend who had congratulated me felt just as blonde as me for not picking it up (heheh and she really is blonde too). Only one other person managed to spot the mistake and called me in a "I-know-it-all" kind of tone and suggested I send the new report "before the boss sees it". But I waited a bit more then sent it out. I still felt like an idiot though.

Ok, enough technical talk, bleh. I spent the rest of the day bombarded with admin, which I just completed. Yes, it was a tough day for Caz who prefers to play on facebook all day. Did I just type that? Noooooo. Yes, I do work hard believe it or not, but I play just as hard, if not harder :)

As the year comes to a close I am feeling weary and in need of some R&R, desperately. Arent I lucky that in 4 weeks Im on leave and off to the coast for a few days? Yay!

Torment's CD Launch - Dark Carnival

2008-11-10T03:03:00.000-08:00

If you have nothing to do this Friday night, actually, even if you do, I dont care. Rather drag your ass to Rock Domination at the Dome for Torment's much anticipated album launch, hilariously titled: "Not your Grandmother's Shoes".

The CD includes hits like "Bleed", "Thank You" and my personal favourite "TP2". Its an awesome CD, a must for your CD collection! So come on over this Friday for a party to remember. The theme is dark carnival, so dress up as your favourite circus character/freak. Im a bit terrified at the prospect of seeing so many clowns there, so I will either have to go blindfolded, or just pretend not to see the damned creatures.

Here are the details:

Date: 14 November 2008

Time: 19:00

Venue: Rock Domination, the Coca-Cola Dome

Entrance: R30, R50 with a CD. First 100 are signed.

Line-Up: Torment

Fragmented Children

Only Forever

Namuh

11th Hour

Spire

(actual times will be posted soon).

There will be tons of give-aways, drink specials and merch on sale. Also prizes for the best dressed. AND! Candyfloss and popcorn will be available!!! Yippeeee!!!!! This promises to be the event of the year, so dont miss out!

In the meantime, check this awesome video my talented monkey did. He also did all the artwork on the CD. Im so proud!

All Hallows Eve

2008-11-05T05:49:00.000-08:00

This is a bit late, since it is now Guy Fawkes’s Day, but most of you know how much I can procrastinate – though, in my defence, I have been extremely busy these past few days, who would have guessed? Hahahaha.

Anyway, as I mentioned last week, I was really looking forward to Halloween as it promised to be a night full of fun events – and it didn’t fail to disappoint. Itching to get out of work and start the festivities, I left work early and walked to Sandton City before I met Andre at the Sandton Convention Centre for the annual Winex expo. We were disappointed that Monkey couldn’t join us, but we managed to survive with our hardworking man. There’s always next year.

As soon as we entered, we quickly ate a sandwich to line our stomachs then got our wine glass and ventured in for some “serious” wine tasting. For over a year now, I switched from white to red and I don’t think I will even dream of going back to white. We decided to go round the outer walls first and tried almost every wine that looked “interesting” to us i.e. great packaging/advertising, or just good looking people manning the stalls, lol.

In no time we were quite tipsy, but that didn’t stop us. At one stall, we each got a badge for sampling the wine (very yummy and affordable, I think it was called “café” – must look out for it in the shops!) and one of the guys was quite daring and insisted on pinning the badge on me. What a flirt. He saw my scared look and eventually settled on pinning it on my bag, hahahaha.

Another stall worth mentioning, of course, is the one with the cocktails. This stall made the most delicious concoctions, with each of their wines: red, white and rose. They also made you sample their red wine, together with a small square of Orange/Dark Lindt chocolate. I almost turned my nose up at the thought, but Im glad I didn’t. That was so delicious!

After an hour, Ferdi and Matt joined us and we hurried through the stalls so they could get their money’s worth before we left for the Halloween gig. We sampled more reds, some fine Klipdrift brandy, and who knows what else. I even sampled some of the sexy winemaker’s wine, who I had met a few days earlier at a work shindig. I wanted to introduce him to Michelle but she was stuck in traffic and decided to give Winex a skip and rather meet us at Party House. What a bummer. 19h00 sharp we raced out of Sandton like a bat out of hell, hitting the back roads so we wouldn’t miss a second of Monkey’s gig. As soon as we got to the Dome, I ran out the car, went into Rock Domination by mistake (where there was tons of food, and creepy old men. Looked like a Jagter’s Vergadering). I quickly left that scene and went into Party House and made a beeline for my man. There he was, setting his guitar, with a green afro on his head. Ahhhh, so cute. I gave him a big, fat kiss then went to mingle with the others and got myself a drink – as if I really needed one!

I was glad that I didn’t miss their performance. It gave me the chance to hear their new songs again, which I only heard once before at Witchfest. I really loved them, and Im not just saying that cause Im sleeping with the guitarist! Hahahaha. I really cant wait for their CD launch. They are going to rock everyone’s socks off.

After that I downed a tequila with Monkey and his sister. I love tequila, but this time I really shouldn’t have, after my hectic wine consumption. Right then and there, I made the wise choice of drinking water for a while, also considering the fact that I was broke! I did accept a few drinks here and there from kind friends, but I don’t think I managed to finish any of them. As soon as I put them down somewhere, I kind of forgot about them. Uh oh! What’s going on here? Lol

In between running around like a maniac, chatting to people and trying to keep my head screwed on straight, I watched a bit of Warthane, and Chromium. Ferdi and Andre had a fun time having their faces painted by Michelle. Here is some of the scary evidence:

I had a good laugh while we were watching Chromium. First up, Ferdi comes and tells me that him and Basti brushed Chromium’s hair before they went on stage. So I went nearer to check their handiwork, and yip, they looked very “coiffed” for a change! Hahahaha. (this was also Adrian’s, the bassist, last gig with Chromium – very sad, he will be missed!). Then, while chatting with Monkey and Princess Pretzel, a certain band member’s ex, clearly a bit intoxicated, approached us, and practically wanted to jump my bones! I was quite chuffed that she thought I was hot, it even boosted my confidence quite a few notches, but um, no! Monkey thought it was hilarious though. Heheheh, naughty bugger.

Since we were on the bike, we had to leave before it turned into a pumpkin. It was quite a risk, I was in no condition to ride with him but I tried my best to remain alert, even though I bumped Monkey’s helmet several times! He counted – 9 times, and still doesn’t let me forget it. We thought it was funny, but ja, don’t think we will be chancing it again.

This was surely a preview for the CD launch, which is happening next week Friday, same venue, on the 14th of November. The theme is “Dark Carnival” so everyone’s is encouraged to dress up (or down, whichever you prefer, heheh). Monkey and I already picked out our gear. If you want to see what we will be going as, come down for a most excellent party, and join us!!!

Happy Halloween, you dark creatures!

2008-10-31T03:18:00.000-07:00

Trick or Treat!

Definitely a treat for me tonight. Firstly, Im off to Winex at the Sandton Convention Centre for two hours of wine indulgence, then we rush off to the Dome, specifically Rock Domination, for a Halloween Party of note! If you havent got anything to do, get your asses there. Its free entrance, and there's an awesome line-up of bands:

18:45 - Gadabout
19:30 - Torment
20:15 - Warthane
21:00 - Visus
21:45 - Knave
22:30 - Chromium
23:15 - Hell To Pay
00:00 - Pragmatic Death Protocol

And best dressed wins a R500 bar tab. Schweet!

I wont be dressing up, as the Devil's mother is already appropriately kitted out, heheh.

Happy Halloween dudes!!!!

To all the self-righteous bigoted Christians out there

2008-10-22T23:43:00.001-07:00

Before I go on, let me be clear about something: I am a Christian, AND a metal-head. Yes, you can be both, and there are many like me out there. Many Christians have this misconception that people that listen to metal, worship the devil and are just pure evil. How wrong they are. We do not go round with Samurai swords on our backs, slashing people’s throats. But I’m not going to discuss that now, that has been done to death – excuse the pun.

I am just so sick and tired of these bigots butting their noses into things that they really don’t know much about or understand. What I am referring to, is the upcoming Devildriver concert that is supposed to be taking place next week, November 1, at Oppidam. Some morons decided that because the band has the word “Devil” in its name, ultimately it must be evil and therefore cannot possibly be allowed to perform its satanic rituals in our shores. Little do they know that Devildriver actually refers to bells that are used to fend off evil spirits. If only they had done a little bit of research before they got their panties in a knot. Just because they scream, have long hair, headbang and indulge in mosh pits DOES NOT make them satanic, you stupid little twits.

So that led to the show being cancelled at this venue, after these ignoramuses (yes, I am going to keep on calling them names) bombarded the venue to cancel this “abomination”. I just shake my head at this and sigh. They will never understand. In fact, I dare them to go and read some of Devildriver's lyrics. Come on, do it, you just might be surprised.

You may have succeeded here, but know this – the show will go on. Even if they have to play in my tiny back yard, Devildriver will still play! In fact, as Im typing this, I have just read that another venue has been found. So hahahahaha, you jerks (I was gonna type something nastier, but hey Im not that mean).
Up yours!

KEEP IT METAL!!! \m/

Bleh, its Friday

2008-10-03T01:23:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Everyone is just rubbing me the wrong way. Especially my colleagues who whine when they are not spoon-fed. Well, Im fed up, Im cranky, I need a drink. But Im sleepy, so sleepy I havent got the energy to do anything tonight. Last night I went to the drive-in with my brothers and friends and I couldnt even stay awake. It had nothing to do with the films' entertainment value. I had been wanting to watch Tropic Thunder for ages now, but I must have missed more than half of it as I dozed off every five minutes. It was such a deep sleep that I even dreamt in between takes. Every time I forced to wake myself up, so much that it hurt. And this is not the only instance, its happening a lot lately. Oh please, I cant spend the rest of my life sleeping. I need ENERGY!!!

Bleh

The Witchfest Project: The Untold Story

2008-10-01T06:16:00.000-07:00

(sorry Charlie, I had to steal from you a bit).

It took a full two days and a bit for me to recover. Let me tell you, been back at work after a 48 hour sleep session is not fun, I would love to be taking a nap right now! Ok, so I didn’t sleep for 48 hours straight, but 70% of it was spent with my eyes closed!

Witchfest 2008 was for me, the best camping rocking experience ever. If you have seen the photos on facebook, the pictures definitely speak louder than words! To all that were there, the Tormented Children posse, I thank you for all the good times, the giggles, the photo bombing, the river! Not a care in the world, we were camping! What a weekend!

After some crazy cajoling the previous two nights, Monkey and I woke up early early (for me it was normal, for Monkey, well, he doesn’t know what 8am looks like. Now he does), with a two day old Flaming Lamborghini induced hangover (never again, yuk) and squashed all our shit into poor Fritz. We then rushed to pick up Eugene, with the car already filled to the brim. I still have no idea how we managed to yet put more stuff in there. That’s why I love my car so much.

The weather didn’t look promising at all. It was cloudy and threatening to rain. Even though we were going all the way to KZN, the weather reports said that it would be hot but get very cold and possibly rain, even snow on the weekend. So we weren’t too sure what awaited us, I just packed for all seasons.

By 10am we were at Wez’s place, but no one else had yet arrived. After an hour of waiting, we decided to go to a nearby Pick n Pay and shop for some bare necessities i.e. booze, meat and more booze. Once again, Fritz was jam-packed with even more stuff: 3 cases of beer, copious amounts of bottles of spirits, meat, rolls etc. Eish!

Bianca and Charles were already at Wez’s but we still had to wait for Itai to leave work. Poor bugger. So eventually we left, 3 hours after schedule and raced to Mooirivier like a bat out of hell (or in this case, wanting to get into hell, bwhahahaha). We needed to get there before sunset to pitch up our tents (doing it in the dark is just not cricket) and catch Fragmented Children’s gig which was at 18:00.

We stopped once just before a very windy Harrismith, then once again at Mooirivier so Wez could find a butchery, much to our consternation. I was itching to get there, I hate long drives. We got there just before 18:00, quickly put up our tents in the Fragmented Children camp (which was then named Tormented Children) and ran to the stage area, armed with booze, to see those crazy nutters. The sun was already setting, but it was still scorching hot. I took some damn good pics, if I say so myself, and jammed to their tunes. What awesome peeps.

Back at the camp, we embraced, we partied, we giggled and passed the time away before it was time for Torment to go on stage. Getting there was quite a distance so Charlie, aka Princess Pretzel drove his car with all the equipment while we tackled the treacherous mud and tall dry grass. I was made official photographer for the night so I got to stand right by the stage while all the other sods stood behind the barrier, heheh. What baffled most of us was the poor sound, and the “no alcohol and no swearing on stage” rule. WTF? This is Witchfest!

I was quite impressed with the boys’ set. They included several samples at the beginning of some of their songs and included two new, kickass, hardcore songs, one of which I filmed in its entirety. Wooohoooo! They rocked! We had a giggle when the FC boys proclaimed them a “Black Metal” band, bwhahahahhaa. Yes, they are BEE compliant.

Once that was over, we were free to party and go bos. It had been a long time since I had scored a drum stick from Charles, so I happily walked back to camp with my stick and poked things with it. Bianca’s butt was my last victim. I named my work of art “Bianca on a schteeeek” which was met with a fit of giggles from Ray Ray. Oh, he cracks me up.

Monkey and Adam figured out that they were separated at birth, the more they talked the more they things they found that they had in common. So for the rest of the weekend, I called Adam the “stunt double”. Much of the evening is a blur but eventually we got to our cold tents and slept, a bit. We woke up early next morning to the sounds of metalheads happily chirping away. By that I mean Ray Ray and Matty Boy.

I decided to brave the showers but that was pointless as it was the equivalent of having a bird pissing on you. I tried to clean up as much as I could then went back to camp. It was quickly getting hotter and hotter, so Monkey and I decided to join Wez and Eugene at the river to cool off and drink cold beer – nothing beat that! We were soon joined by our whole camp and we sat in the cool water getting up to mischief, and slapping on the sunscreen as our baby pale skin burned. Time was not of the essence. We were just having fun. And getting wasted and stoned – the rock ‘n roll life, baby.

Eventually I got bored, and in my crazy state, decided to run after a bull. Bad idea, but luckily no one got hurt, especially the bull. I just stood there, some 2 metres away from it, and waved stupidly like a special kid. I could hear Monkey in the background shouting worriedly for me to move away from there, but I just waved, and smiled.

As soon as the booze ran out and the water got colder, we held onto each other and carefully tread on the stones to get back to shore and more booze. We had a good fire going too – as the sun set it quickly got colder. And that’s when Matty Boy passed out on my chair. I was about to wake him, or at least tickle his nose, when I was quickly stopped in my tracks by Ray and Q. They were definitely up to something. So I ran and got my camera – hee hee.

I filmed as they tied Matt up with some red and white tape, while the rest tried to control their giggles so as not to wake him up. But the little one didn’t move an inch, he was comatose. We even checked if he was breathing, just to make sure. Bianca then painted his face so pretty, while others did some unspeakable things to the poor thing. It was then finally time to wake him up, and was dunked with a bottle of cold water, which instantly gave him the shock of his life. He had no clue of his surroundings or of what had just taken place. He smiled happily and high-fived the grinning evil-doers.

The party carried on, so much booze was consumed that the rest is a blur. I remember watching Agro, eating some pork wors and drinking way too much OBS – thanks Bianca. I was in the mood for a fight and so I apparently picked the Satanists from Bloemfontein as my victims. All 5 of them. We fought about ABBA, I think. Monkey had to fill in the blanks.

I was put to bed sometime before midnight, in quite a drunken stupor, and forced to hold a full 2 litre coke in my hands while Monkey searched for Comprals. Needless to say, I couldn’t hold on to it and dropped coke all over myself. He gave me the painkillers, tucked me in, and went to watch Fokofpolisiekar. Wish I hadnt missed that.

I woke up the next morning feeling so fragile it took me an hour to get out of the tent and another two to recover and actually move around. I sat by the fire, wrapped in my sleeping bag looking miserable while Monkey gave me sympathetic looks. Saturday was the antithesis of the previous day, which was scorching hot. This day was freezing, so no frolicking in the river.

After I felt a bit more alive, Monkey and I strolled to the food tent and got ourselves some sustenance. I immediately felt much better. Only it was getting colder and colder. That afternoon we watched Misericord on stage, and almost died of frostbite as we were definitely not amply clothed for this. When they finished we ran back to camp and put on almost every item of clothing we had. I put on one jersey and two thick jackets, and soon began to feel my fingers and toes again. Our campfire was quite impressive, thanks to our forest guy, Itai and his two sidekicks, Monkey and Keylim who managed to drag the biggest trees they could find.

Booze was almost out of the question for me so I drank a few gay Saritas and tried to stay awake as much as possible as tonight was the big night we had all being waiting for: Carcass! We heard rumours of snow, and temperatures dropping down to -4 but that wasn’t going to deter us. We were ready. It was just hard to believe that the previous day we had been sitting in the river in our underwear!

My eyes refused to remain open, and the more I sat, the sleepier I felt. Monkey and I tried to sleep for a bit just after we ate, but with all the commotion going on outside, we didn’t last longer than an hour. So we walked to the stage to see what was happening. We watched another band from the UK, called Season of Six, for a bit. Quite impressive. And all of a sudden, the sound had improved tenfold. Hmmm.

Waiting for Carcass was a bitch and a half. It took their single sound tecchie over an hour to set everything according to their specifications and fix what our crap sound guys had done. We were getting restless, cold and miserable, but we persevered, and watched as the sleet dropped from the sky.

When Carcass finally came on stage, the crowd woke up and went wild. These guys were amazing, you could tell that they have been doing this for years. Totally blew me away. After one song, they insisted we get rid of the barriers and move closer to the stage and party with them. I wish I had reacted a bit faster, but still managed to get a good spot to take better pics of the band. I then threatened to leave Monkey for one of the guitarists. He was that good, lol.

It was definitely worth staying up for Carcass. What a friendly, down to earth band, with gorgeous hair to die for! They didn’t even seem to mind playing for a small crowd of 300 people in the middle of nowhere, with sleet falling on their heads. We got to bed just before 3am, our bones aching all over. I longed for bed but dreaded freezing my butt off in the tent, but surprisingly, with all the clothes I had on and Monkey’s cuddles, I was soon in la-la land.

It seemed too early when I was roused from my sleep, but we wanted to leave as soon as possible so we could get home to a nice warm shower and comfy bed. I moved my ass and helped pack all our shit and get out. By 8:30 Monkey, Eugene and I were out of there while the rest still contemplated packing up. The drive back felt long and hard, and this time Eugene took over the wheels for a bit as well. I didn’t even dare as with my granny speed we would have gotten us home the next day. So with the soothing tunes of Andrea Bocelli and old school rock, we made the long trek home. After 3 days of slaughterhouse metal, we couldn’t bear to listen to screams anymore.

On our way out of Southern Cross, we saw a couple of Jesus freaks sticking up a sign saying “Jesus died for you”. They probably thought we were worshipping the devil at Witchfest. Please, metalheads are a peace-loving group.

We finally got home that afternoon, and after a much needed shower, we climbed into bed and slept till the very next day, with a pit stop at 10 that evening to watch The Mummy 3. I just couldn’t let myself sleep all that time, it was crazy!

So now I THINK I have recovered, but it was definitely all worth it, bonding with the Fragmented Children crowd, the debauchery, the squealing pig music. We must do it again soon! HELL YEAH!

Long weekend here I come. Carcass, Witchfest, oh YEAH BABY!!!

2008-09-23T06:59:00.000-07:00

A speedy recovery from last week's op was imperative, because tomorrow begins a long weekend of note, PARTY!
Being a public holiday tomorrow, I decided to take off Thursday and Friday off as well - I had to, anyway, as we are trekking down to KZN for the Witchfest rock festival. Then I thought, might as well take Monday and Tuesday too! Will need it to recover!!!

This afternoon is DRAGGING (note my frustration by the repetitive use of CAPS). Coming back to work yesterday was a total bitch yesterday, having to catch up with over a week's work. So I have worked non-stop, even took work home last night and poured over it till the wee hours, and now I have managed to complete everything with 2 hours to spare. Oh the boredom! One of my friends actually asked me earlier if I had been crying. Oh hell no, its just that my eyes are red and watery from staring at my screens all day!!!

So what does this long weekend have in store for me? Well, tomorrow we are off to a braai to celebrate Uwe's new place. Cant get too hectic as I need to pack for Witchfest. Monkey and I leave early Thursday morning, with my dear old Fritz. Not too sure who are final passengers will be, it changes all the time. We are off to Southern Cross in Mooirivier, several hours drive, so Im sure I will get to drive as well.

That's three and a half days of hardcore music. Monkey and the Torment boys will be playing on Thursday night, along with my other fave boys and gal from Fragmented Children. Its bound to be kickass, since Torment has been practising very hard and will be adding a few new things to their line-up - CANT WAIT!

The rest of the line-up is just as amazing, the main event being of course, the reunion of UK band Carcass. I have never seen them before and dont know their music too well, but Im listening to their Heartwork CD right now which Monkey kindly copied for me. It's one of his fave bands so he is more than excited about seeing them live.

Four days of camping should get rough, I hope it doesnt rain and that the weather is just awesome. We return on Sunday, so once I have recovered, I will give a full round-up here and post some pics. I know Im gonna get trigger happy!

OH GOOD TIMES ARE BACK AGAIN!!!

Forever Young Pics

2008-09-18T09:00:00.001-07:00

As promised, here are some pics from the party last week:

My wisdom is now gone

2008-09-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

Whatever little wisdom I had left, was ripped away from my bleeding gums on a sullen, Monday afternoon. Been a proscrastinator in almost every aspect of my life, I hung on to my 4 little Wisdom teeth for as long as I could, until common sense, two dentists and a surgeon told me that it was time to let go and say goodbye.

I went to see the surgeon last Friday afternoon, and knowing what was coming, I booked for the very next available surgery date, which happened to be Monday afternoon. I decided right there and then to go for it, how very unlike me. I definitely was not looking forward to the pain and sucking liquids via a straw.

Monday morning I woke up with a feeling of dread going right to my stomach. I treasured the toast and egg that I had for breakfast before the deadline of no food/liquid was up. This was my last proper meal. What I'd give to eat juicy ribs right now!!!

Dearly beloved Monkey took me shopping before driving me to the hospital and forever remaining at my bedside. He definitely soothed me quite a bit, even though we didnt talk much - he worked on his laptop while I read. But an hour before I was due to be taken to the gallows, I could not read anymore and engaged Monkey into mindless chatter to hide the fact that the nurses were late in coming to fetch me.

Eventually they arrived and even though I looked calm, inside I was needlessly worrying and thinking of every ridiculous thing that could go wrong. Really, why was I being such a drama queen? This was just a standard, minor procedure.

Unfortunately I was forced to wait outside the theatre, in my ugly gown, incredibly sexy underwear and headgear and ever-increasing nerves for over 30 minutes. I tried to catch a few zzzs but even that was impossible. After a few false starts, I was wheeled into theatre by my anaesthesist, and there was the sweet little old surgeon waiting for me. He was smiling sweetly at me asking me if I was ok. All my paranoid mind could register then was an evil old man grinning at me sadistically, out to get my blood and precious teeth.

I was aware of everything around me, even when the anaesthesist inserted a needle in my arm and popped a vein. Well, that didnt go well. Again, I was cool, calm and collected on the outside, but on the inside I was thinking, "if he can fuck this up, what else will he fuck up when Im under?" That and another 10 000 other crazy thoughts. But he got it right second time around, and in a few seconds I forgot the stinging pain in my arm and was out into the land of oblivion.

Next thing I remember was waking up in the recovery room, with a mouth swollen 3x times its regular size, and not been able to talk at all. A few minutes later a huge piece of gauze was removed from inside my mouth and I could at least utter a few words. Aaah. I felt only a slight pain, but mostly discomfort at not being able to move my jaw around much, and feeling my bottom lip expanding to huge proportions.

I was then taken back to my ward, and there was Monkey waiting for me ever so patiently. He told me that I had been away for more than 2 hours. Hard to believe since to me it only felt like 30-40 minutes. By then I was almost fully conscious and gratefully took the two ice packs that the nurse handed me and put them on my face. All I wanted was my pain meds and to go home asap. Monkey then told me that out the three patients that had their wisdom teeth removed today, I came out the best. One was sleeping the whole time and the other started screaming and throwing things around like a spoilt brat. So Im not a drama queen after all :)

We waited a bit longer while the nurses brought me some yoghurt (and some grossly looking jelly with custard - that was left untouched), and my meds. I was then discharged and ready to go home. I was rather quiet on the way, as I could barely talk and felt more sleepy by the minute. Monkey took me home, carried my stuff upstairs and left while I sorted myself out. In a few minutes I was tucked in bed and ready to sleep. Only I couldnt sleep. I was up all night spitting out blood in a bucket next to me, and crying silently as the pain in my mouth and jaw increased exponentially.

At 3am I gave up, switched on my bedroom lights and read a book for a while until even that seemed impossible so I just sat on my bed and waited for daylight. At 5am my mom came to check on me and brought me some yoghurt so I could take my painkillers afterwards. Eventually the drugs kicked in and the pain subsided. And its been like that ever since. I look like a lopsided chipmunk, as the swelling is worse on the right side, as those teeth were the hardest to remove. But I am healing nicely, even though I still cant eat solids yet, its so hard to chew. If I have to eat another bowl of yoghurt or custard, Im going to hurl!!!

Cant wait for this nightmare to end.

Forever Young

2008-09-11T04:05:00.000-07:00

Being so busy at work keeps me from updating this blog on a regular basis, plus being on leave and courses adds to the drama. But all work and no play is just not on, so yesterday afternoon we got treated to our annual Spring party here at work. This year's theme was "Forever Young" (Im sure you could imagine Ferdi's laughter at hearing this). So we were all encouraged to dress up using our wildest imagination.

Normally I shy away from dressing up, later regretting it as I see all the clever ideas people come up with. So this time, my evil partner in crime, Liesel, and I decided to be a little more creative. We spent quite some time getting dressed up at her house while her adorable little kids watched, so we were quite late for the party, though just in time for speeches. After changing our minds several times while getting dressed, we eventually decided on shorts, bright tights underneath (Liesel in pink, me in purple), top, pigtails, ribbons, hairclips and drawn on freckles. We looked like two overgrown kids trying on their mothers' clothes, heheheh. As soon as I get some pics, I will post them here.

As props we used the big lollypops we got at work that morning, and I carried Mumble my penguin that was given to me by Monkey, quite tightly, refusing to let anyone touch him. As we arrived, to our horror we realised that no one else had bothered to dress up!!!! WTF??!!! Normally quite a handful of people go out, but this time, either people were still in their work clothes, or donned in more comfortable shorts, tshirts and slops. Nothing more wacky than that. Well, I quickly turned our horror into something positive - we definitely stood out, and received a lot of compliments for our outfits and making an effort!

After the speeches were over, we got some drinks and mingled, looking at all the fun activities that we could participate in. The organisers definitely went all out for this one! We had trampolines, jumping castles, air robot duelling (this was cool, more on this later!), a tattoo parlour (henna only, duh), a foam party section, karaoke, a cocktail bar, a coffee bar, and much more! I didnt know how I was going to fit in everything in one evening!

We soon ditched the regular drinks and started to sample the yummy inventive cocktails created by "Thirst". We soon made friends with one of the barmen, Daniel, who started us off with a strange but extremely delicious cocktail that contained tequila (quite a bit, I might add), caramel, pineapple juice and ginger ale. Hmmmm hmmmm hmmmm. I think I must have downed several that evening as I came back running for more regularly. It was quite a change from our regular Strawberry Daiquiris and Mojitos.

Next, we were suckered into doing a team karaoke effort. We had 3 mics between 10 of us, and somehow one of them got shoved in front of my face as soon as the rest heard me sing the first few lines of "Summer of 69". Feck, I didnt know I was that good. Or was I THAT bad? lol. It was fun nonetheless, so much fun that we stuck around and helped the next group sing "I will survice" (again, me with mic).

I really wanted to try out some tattoos (since Im seriously considering getting another real one), so I had one done on my left boob (heheh) - a spider with a skull face, and a string of starts on my ankle. The ankle is a winner, methinks. Well, having a tat on my boob is just tacky. I just did it cause I couldnt be outdone by my boss who had one put there as well. Liesel got one on her back and wrist.

So then more cocktails, dancing, eating, chatting, watching Denim perform on stage, and suddenly the evening was flying by. I was eyeing the foam party section, and promised to enter it before I left. But it was so windy and cold, I was already shivering while dry, and got hit by several foam clouds that got fiercely blown by the wind in our direction.

Eventually I managed to persuade one of the guys to challenge me to a duel on the air robot platform, since Liesel refused. The platform was like a round jumping castle, and both fighters were each helped up by two assistants, and kitted out in a blow-up gigantic robot suit and headgear. As soon as I was in (what a mission!), the suit was inflated and then we were both ready to clobber each other. I felt and looked like a Transformer. Just walking to the middle to meet my opponent was quite a task as I tried to maintain my balance and not fall over (now try doing that after a few cocktails!). First try the guy got me good, and landed on top of me. We were hoisted up and then I got him twice (the last time he said he was going to let me fall on him and let me win, haha what a gentleman). So I won, with a little help and was then helped out of the suit and brought back down to earth. I was dizzy for several seconds before I gulped another cocktail. That was so much fun! Wouldnt mind having one of those in my back garden!

Time was running out, and I really wanted to go into the foam. So after a bit of dancing and prodding, Liesel and I went in there, and danced to the beat of the music. It really felt like we were in a washing machine as only our heads were visible. And thats when the shit hit the fan. As Liesel was doing one of her manoeuvres, her ring slipped out and went flying into oblivion, never to be seen again. We tried in vain to look for it, but gave up after a few minutes. We still havent found it. What a pity.

I was now shivering to death, wet from neck to toe, so I begged Ferdi to fetch me. I was in bed by 11, freezing my butt off even though I was dry and covered by my warm duvet. Its a miracle Im not sick today. But in spite of that, this was one of the best parties I have attended in a very long time. Makes me think how much I miss being a kid!!!

Spring Festival 2008

2008-09-03T09:59:00.000-07:00

3 more days to go! I am so stressed I hope everything will go smoothly. Hope to see you all there!!!!!! Dammit.

Armageddon Fest

2008-09-02T06:45:00.000-07:00

Yet another gig at Tempos last weekend, and what a busy weekend it was! Having had a long week, I was hesitant to do anything strenuous on Friday night. So, even after Monkey's attempts at getting me to go out and drink cocktails with him, I managed to keep him indoors that night as I dreaded the busy Saturday that awaited us.

I woke up at the crack of dawn, something that I really really loathe to do on a weekend, so that I could make it in time for the work day at church. Its a week to go till our annual Spring Festival, so preparations are fully under way, with me directing the flow once again. Its quite strenuous, I have to admit, and Im seriously considering handing over the baton to someone else next year, though there arent too many willing candidates out there.

So monkey dropped me off while he went to get me a brand spanking new car radio and fitted it to my trusty old Fritz (aka my car). After much dawdling, I got everyone inside the church hall and chaired a meeting to finalise everyone's requirements for next week. It went rather smoothly, so I was quite satisfied. We finished earlier than expected so I had to wait till Monkey finished fitting my car radio. Soon he was back, with music blasting from the car's speakers. Yay!!! I dont have to listen to crappy old 94.7 ANYMORE!

I was in desperate need of sustenance so I was rushed to McDonalds for a much needed McFeast Deluxe, SUPER SIZE. Yes, I was starving. I hadnt eaten anything that day. Only I was made to wait forever for my meal. My mood worsened and by the time I sat down to eat chomp down my food, I was quite cranky. I finished in record time, but felt very very ill afterwards.

We said goodbye to Ferdi, Weasel and Matt and went to the bike shop to get me a new bike jacket (yes, I have been splurging out lately). They had a sale on, and immediately one of the sales guys fitted me out with an awesome, ultra-cool black, silver and white leather jacket. I looked like a real biker chick. Monkey approved and so I bought the jacket. Now I was all kitted out for a serious bike ride (I bought a stunning gold dragon helmet the week before).

We then rushed home for a quick half hour nap before going to Tempos. Just as I was nodding off my alarm went off so no sleep for me. It was my turn to drive Fritz so I nervously drove to Tempos, without any help from Monkey (he even refused to be my eyes when I told him I couldnt see too well with my glasses. Hmmph) but he said it was for my own good and in retrospect, I agree with him - lets hope he doesnt read this! Hahahaha.

I thought we were going to be late, since I took forever to park the car properly, all on my own, but as we went inside, Fragmented Children was just about done with their sound check so all was good. I waved to the guys, got a drink and settled my shaky ass on a table to watch one of my fave bands.

Torment was up next and even though it was a crappy time slot (16:00, hardly any peeps) we still rocked out. Eugene, the bassist was not able to make it, so Monkey, Itai and Wez each took turns at the bass. By now they are getting the hang of it, so it didnt sound too bad.

We hung out at the bar for almost the rest of the day/night, except when we watched Only Forever. I have been wanting to see this band since the beginning of the year and I finally got the chance to listen to them. What an awesome band! And I get to see them once more this Friday at Fragmented Children's EP Launch (of course, Torment will also be playing heheh). Cant wait!

I also watched the Dead Will Tell from a distance. Last band for the evening, these boys know how to rock on stage, ultra tight shorts and all (puts me to shame. Hell, they put any girl to shame! lol). Had I been a bit more alive and enthusiastic, I would have been right in front, headbanging my neck off.

It was a long day, and on our way home, Monkey and I stopped at Steers for some food. Its a bad habit, eating so late, but damn we were starving. Either we have to eat during regular times, or not stay out till so late. Yeah. Right.

Sunday was just as worse. I was meant to get up early to go to church, but I didnt have the strength. So eventually we surfaced and took Fritz home so we could retrieve Susan (aka Monkey's bike) from my house. Again, I drove, and I was proud that I didnt stall once, my driving is really improving! So once at my house, we changed into our bike gear (me all spanking new hee hee) and raced to the Hillfox flea market before we went on a "brunch" run lol.

The wind was quite strong. No scratch that. The wind was f*cking strong, almost blew us both away, but we still managed to land all the way in Magalies for a nice, quiet lunch. I really enjoyed that. But by the time we got home, we were both beat and all we could do was pass out for a looooong nap. Before we knew it, the weekend was over :(

I wish I could say that this coming weekend will be a bit more relaxed and uneventful, but no such luck! FC Launch AND Spring Festival. Eeeeek! Im gonna need to get away soon!

More violence

2008-08-21T23:57:00.000-07:00

The Star reported this morning that a 68 year old pensioner from Portugal living in an old age home in Southdale, shot two residents and then shot and killed himself. He must have been listening to Bles Bridges. He is evil.

I blame him. Lets boycott his music.

ZZZZzzzzzzzzz

2008-08-21T04:39:00.000-07:00

Two hours sleep...nuff said!

This is for all you heavy metal ignoranuses!

2008-08-20T03:36:00.000-07:00

I am sure most of you in South Africa have by now have heard of the tragic, senseless, horrific killing of a schoolboy in Krugersdorp as well as the injuries suffered by three others, all at the hands of the same demented pupil at one of the schools. Its really sad, and my heart goes out to the family and friends of all involved. No one should have to go through something as horrific as this.

But, and this is a big BUT, I am deeply annoyed and irritated at how the media and many other narrow minded people have jumped on the "lets blame heavy metal for this" bandwagon. All because the kid in question wore a Slipknot mask while committing these evil acts. Oh how I wish he had gone dressed as Celine Dion, bwhahahhahaha (in fact, if you had me listening to her music, I probably would go out dressed like her and kill everyone in my sight).

Most people seem to be missing the point, that this kid had serious issues (no shit, hey) and even though his parents noticed a "change in him" some time back, did they do anything about it? No, they just let him be. So who is to blame here? Hmmm? This is bad parenting at its worst. They should have seen the signs. And who in their right mind buys their kid a samurai sword? WTF. Someone should have called child services.

Since that Black Monday I have joined several groups on facebook, that either support or blame heavy metal, just to get both sides of the story. But it seems to me that metal is winning the fight as the dissers are keeping very quiet - looks looks like you idiots havent got a leg to stand on, your arguments are futile and unsupported. I was quite interested by one comment that one of the metal supporters made "Hitler listened to classical music, but did anyone ever blame Mozart or Beethoven for his genocide?" I dont think so.

So why should heavy metal always get the blame when something like this happens? Because we are the minority, and so misunderstood. For me, heavy metal gives me a chance to express myself and let go of some of my day-to-day frustrations. Its just so easy for them to blame this kind of music, isnt it? Instead of blaming the true culprits - his parents, who are probably right now being made out to be victims. Please. Dont make me throw up.

And lets turn this around a bit, to other, less "notorious" music genres. What about hip hop, rap and whatever other ass-churned out crap that comes out of these so-called musicians that condone degrading women, gang wars and greed. Does anyone ever blame this shitty music for violence? I dont think so.

Actually, the more I think about this, the more indigestion I feel coming on. I could go on and on about this, but I think I have made my point. Instead of pointing fingers at the music, look at the deeper, underlying factors. This boy was not right in the head. Whether he listened to Britney Spears or Cradle of Filth does not matter. He was crying out for help but no one noticed. Until it was too late. How sad.

LONG LIVE HEAVY METAL.

I am about to look like a chipmunk

2008-08-19T02:06:00.000-07:00

This year has been the worst for me in terms of my health. I am starting to believe that Im decomposing at a rapid rate - dont all jump for joy at once. Just as I thought I had finally gotten the better of my sinuses, my wisdom teeth decided it was their turn to torture me a bit. Hell, not a bit, A LOT. So much that I felt like my brain was about to explode.

So I went to the dentist, and turns out that not only do I have to get these godforsaken teeth out, but also another FOUR molars, just to make space for new BRACES. WTF. That's a total of EIGHT TEETH! Why not shoot me now.

The whole weekend I spent in extreme pain, temporarily masked by random salt water rinses, antibiotics and whiskey shots. I was in agony. I am STILL in agony. The pain seems to get worse and worse and it doesnt help that I have a huge gaping hole on the side of my mouth, which I keep on biting since my gums are swollen. So I cant really eat. Even drinking water is painful.

The next step is for me to see an orthodontist for a full assessment before I go under the knife. But, as my luck goes, I could only get an appointment next week Monday. Another week of excruciating pain? Oh hell no, please put me out of my misery now!!!

Great service, for a change

2008-08-13T06:45:00.001-07:00

The manager that runs Fegos below our offices never fails to amaze me, especially today. The way she keeps that little coffee shop running is nothing short of amazing. You can immediately tell that she is enthusiastic, smart and on top of things.

When my boss asked me this afternoon to give them a call and order him some food, I instead offered to walk down there. Anything to get out of the office. I have been cooped up in here all week. So I took some extra orders from the rest of the team and off I went, happily whistling along and enjoying the breath of fresh air. Yes, I was in a good mood (and still am, heheh).

As soon as I walked into Fegos, as I was greeted by the manager with a big smile and she immediately took my order. She then barked the different orders to her designated employees and insisted it be done immediately as "the lady is in a hurry". I wasnt. In fact, I didnt mind waiting, it was good to get out. But she explained to me that if she didnt order her staff to get a move on, they might probably take the rest of the century to make a little toasted sandwich.

So while I watched Argentina kick some Serbian ass at soccer in the Beijing Olympics, everyone scurried about to prepare my stuff. The coffees were ready in no time and my droolworthy carrot cake (yes, I know it doesnt count as cake, having carrots and all, but I was craving it) as well, but my boss' toasted sammie took forever and ever and ever. Still I didnt mind, I was happy to remain there and watch the soccer match.

The manager promised me it would take about another minute and went and sat at her table to carry on with her work. But, 5 minutes later, when she looked up and saw that I was still standing there, all hell broke loose in the kitchen. I think she might have prepared that sammie herself, because a few minutes later she brought it, all apologetic and made me promise that I would come back tomorrow for a free cappuccino. She doesnt like to have any angry customers. I wasnt angry, but fair enough. Who can turn down free coffee?

So even though I didnt ask for it, and never felt like I was being treated badly, I was quite impressed with the good service this manager tries to maintain. Nandos should take a lesson from her!

Cramfest

2008-08-11T22:11:00.000-07:00

One thing I learnt after this weekend is, that if one tries to cram way too many things into two and half days, chances are you are probably going to run away screaming and get absolutely nothing done, which is what practically happened to us.

Monkey and I had planned a series of things that we wanted to accomplish this weekend. First, go see his brother, wife and baby. Then meet up with a buddy of his to get some work, go watch the rugby at my parents' house, then play the women's day gig at Rock Bar (three way whammy on Saturday, lots of celebrations, more on that later). Then Sunday we were hoping to go with his parents to the botanical gardens, race back to church so I could fulfill my tea duties and maybe finally attend a trumpet lesson, then go to my parents for a braai. After that, come back home so monkey could do some work. Well, as I look back, I think we only did about a quarter of those things. It was just too overwhelming.

Friday we did go to his brother's for a braai. It was very chilled and the four of us had a great time chatting and ooohing and aaahing at cute lil Alisa. In her fluffy brown overall with hood and all, from the back she reminded me of an Ewok from Star Wars. She looked so adorable! So from now on, whenever she wears that outfit, she will forever be called an Ewok.

Next morning, while it was noon actually, we surfaced and while Monkey was making breakfast/lunch, I read a book and slowly started getting ready for this day's events. We had lots to celebrate that day 1. Women's day, of course. And I pointed it out to Monkey, that since every other day is man's day, we women should at least be allowed one public holiday. He didnt agree. All my arguments fell on deaf ears. 2. It was 19 years since my family and I made the Groot Trek to South Africa, leaving our beautiful Argentinean shores behind. Therefore, it was quite ironic and momentous that on this day SA and Argentina were meeting head to head at Ellis Park for a rugby match. I hoped that at least the Pumas would give the Boks a run for their money, though I knew who would come out winning here. And last, but not least no. 3 - Monkey and I were celebrating 3 months together. A small triumph, most of you might say, but we treasure every moment together.

After lunch we decided to take a nap before going to watch the rugby. Yes, we sleep too much. We havent reached our 30s yet and we already sleep like two old farts. It was supposed to be a 30 minute power nap. But lo and behold, when I eventually opened my eyes and looked at the time, the game had just finished. I cursed and got up, and tried to check if maybe SABC was maybe showing a delayed match but all they were showing was the Olympics. So I phoned Ferdi, who glumly told me the dreadful score. Just as well I hadnt seen it, it would have pissed me off royally.

So instead, we sat at home until it was time to go to the Rock Bar and had some drinks. I was starting to feel ill again since my sinuses were still giving me hassles. But I put on a brave face and tried to have a good time. This was a new venue right below Stones in Melville. Rather small, but not too bad. I cant remember the first few bands that played (one was a rather gay one from Cape Town, lol) but I quite enjoyed Heroes from Red. Awesome stuff. Then it was Torment's turn, who was headlining the event. I dont know how it happened, but the boys were coerced into playing topless, hee hee. It was Women's Day after all! Of course, Ferdi did the same, any chance to show his belly - he takes it!

The rest of the evening was almost a blur as I now couldnt hold on any longer. While the boys packed all the gear, I passed out on a bean bag. I was quite dismayed when they suggested we stop at Bimbos for some food. Yes, I was hungry, but more than anything I was nauseous and in need of my bed. But we went stopped there anyway, and I was getting very uptight and impatient as the service was incredibly slow. Thirty minutes later, we walked out armed with food and off we went. I managed to eat half a steak roll in bed then rolled over and fell asleep. I had told Monkey earlier that he could go to the Botanical gardens on his own while I slept, there was no way I was getting up for the next 12 hours.

Well, neither did Monkey, turns out the previous night took its toll on both of us. So he phoned to cancel with his parents and eventually we fell asleep again. No church either. Oh dear me, Im going to hell. Oh wait, Im the devil's mother, so...

So another breakfast turned into lunch. We didnt even get out the house, except when Monkey went out for a quick drive to get some food and a DVD. While we watched "Cloverfield" (freaky movie, not too bad), he worked at the same time on his laptop. And thats how we spent the rest of the day, until he finally called it quits just before the 20:00 etv movie. So I had a nice lazy day, Monkey, not so much. But I honestly think that from now on, we will try do just one major thing per weekend. Us old farts cannot take on too much, lol.

F*ck Nandos

2008-08-08T06:48:00.000-07:00

I think I am a victim of society. The evil, chicken-loving society that keeps on screwing with my preferred culinary habits. How dare they keep messing with me? If you read my blogs on a regular basis (you should, dammit, I dont do this for fun. Ok, ok, I do), you would know that I hate, I loathe, I totally abhorr chicken due to a childhood mishap. And as I am fussy, some might add the word "extremely" to that statement, the only animal that I dare eat, is Daisy the cow.

Since today is Friday, a day where most of us are tired after a long week, most probably also hungover after "Phuza" Thursday, we tend to jointly order from a greasy fast food joint of choice. Today's was Nando's. We have an in-office delivery system so we quickly browsed through the menu, wrote our selection down on a piece of paper and the designated person placed our order in time for lunch. Many of you would be surprised to learn that Nando's not only sells chicken, but also vegetarian burgers and beef prego rolls.

The last time we ordered from Nando's I got ripped off to shreds cause I opted for a veggie burger. Sacrilege! What was I thinking. So this time I went for a more neanderthal beef prego roll, chip and coke combo. My mouth was watering at the thought of tucking into the juicy roll; I couldnt wait.

Surprisingly our food arrived on time, so a friend and I went down to collect it. Back in the office, I took all the food out and started dishing out, while I searched for my yummy prego. But I just couldnt see it. Everyone had their food, and all I was left with was a chicken prego roll. A CHICKEN prego roll!!! FFS! What the F*CK???!!!!! Are you chicken lovers trying to be funny?

As soon as I exclaimed the F word out loud, everyone groaned a "Oh no, not again" in unison. You see, this is not the first time it's happened to me. It's not even the first time it's happened with Nando's, they have screwed up my order before. Damn chicken people. Last time I was patient while I calmy got my order corrected. This time I was sick, tired, sleepless and on a time bomb ready to explode. And explode I did. Unfortunately, the poor office delivery guy unfairly got the brunt of it. It was not his fault as he had placed the order precisely according to my instructions. He immediately phoned Nando's management and it turned out that the Nando's cashier decided to be clever and improvise on my order, since apparently they DID NOT SELL BEEF PREGOS ANYMORE. So who gives him/her the right to change my order? Huh?

I just didnt give a flying f*ck anymore so I demanded my money back. Even though I had already greedily wolfed down my (f*cken cold) chips and coke, I got my full money back, and rightly so. I am not going to take any more kak service, I wont stand for it. Im tired of people taking me for a ride. And I know this is a small victory on my part, but its a victory nonetheless and a path to greater things. Yes, I am taking this seriously. I am taking a stand!

Spring is coming

2008-08-08T06:23:00.001-07:00

I can tell. My sinuses are on a mission to make my nose as red, stinging and swollen as possible. I feel like it's on fire and the more I sneeze, the more blood vessels I burst. Note to self: don't ever, ever try to block a sneeze ever again, even if it means you have to spray your entire pc screen, DO NOT STOP IT, it bloody hurts.

I must have used half a box of tissues already. It started yesterday morning, when I was awaited with a day full of exciting events. Well, did you think I was in the mood for it all? Hell no. I just wanted to crawl into bed and die. But I sucked it up and faced it all, even though monkey mistook my lack of sleep and sickness, for grumpiness, which ultimately DID make me grumpy, lol.

After a hard day's work, I met several of my workmates at the Baron across the road for pre-drinks, pre- to a Economic panel discussion we were all attending. I had been looking forward to this discussion for days. Being an Economist myself, I wanted to listen to what SA's top 4 banks' chief economists had to say about the looming MPC meeting (interest rates to remain unchanged? I hope so!!), petrol and food prices and overall global economy.

Most of it bored me a bit since I generally keep up to date with economic views on a daily basis, so most of it was not really new to me, except that I sat up and took notice when it was mentioned that it has been forecasted that petrol prices will come down over the next few months. That would certainly be bloody awesome.

*sneeze* *wipes away snot from screen*

Where was I? Oh right, the panel. Considering how economists can go on and blabber about anything and everything just to make themselves heard (biggest bullsh*tters on earth), this meeting was concluded in just over an hour. I think most people were eager to tackle the snacks and bar. I for one, just wanted to get out of there as I had another, more entertaining party to attend. I grabbed one drink and nibbled on a few treats then I was given a lift by one of my colleagues on his beautiful cruiser bike. Yes, I am becoming quite the professional 2-wheel passenger. Its so thrilling!

I took a quick pit stop at home then monkey showed up at my place, on time as always, surprising me with a beautiful bouquet of tulips. Totally unexpected and spontaneous, one of the great things I love about him. And the fact that he gave me one of my favourite flowers without having a clue was a big bonus too. I am truly the luckiest girl on the planet.

We went for drinks at a pub in Northcliff, to celebrate one of his mates' birthdays. I tried to act lively, but after a few minutes I withdrew myself and quietly sipped my drink. It had been a long day, and my nose was still on a mission to torture me. Needless to say, we didnt stay long, and being a Thursday night, I wasnt up to partying till late, especially since I had to get up at 5am the next morning. So when I made a face when monkey suggested that we have one more drink and go, it was mistaken for grumpiness. I WAS NOT GRUMPY. lol. Just tired.

Getting up in the morning was a real mission, but I somehow managed. I watched jealously as monkey slept peacefully like an angel (he had coerced his buddy to take me to work so he could sleep) and immediately decided that this was not fair, so I lunged and landed flat on his stomach with full force, only to be met by groans and moans from monkey - I had landed on his wrist and bent it backwards. Sometimes I forget my own strength. I felt bad, but it was an accident so I was immediately forgiven. I must just be careful not to damage my guitar hero's tools again! That could potentially be catastrophic!

I still look like Rudolph the rednose reindeer but Im not going to let that stop me from having a good time this weekend. Lots of good things happening! I will just have to keep my tissue box close by...

Padkos vir die dag

2008-08-05T23:43:00.000-07:00

I got this email last week from my dear friend Tink, with some inspiring words that I definitely took to heart and will try use as my mantra on a regular basis (easier said than done). Im sure some of these will at least inspire some of you. If only all of us lived by these words...what a beautiful world this would be!

Make the most of all situations and live a beautiful life.

Take a 10-30 minute walk every day and while you walk, smile.

Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.

When you wake up in the morning, complete the following statement:
"Today my purpose is to..."

Live with the 3 E's...
Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy (see, no ecstasy here).
and the 3 F's...
Faith, Family and Friends (no f*cking here? Oh hell no lol)

Dream more while you are awake.

Try to make at least 3 people smile every day.

Realise that life is like school and you are here to learn.
Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.

Smile and laugh more. It will keep the energy vampires away (hopefully not the blood vampires! Yum).

Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

Life's too short to waste time hating anyone (so true, yet so hard to do).

Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagreements.

Make peace with your past, so it won't mess up the present.

Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

Burn the candles. Use the nice sheets. Don't save it for a special occassion.
Today is special.

No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

Forgive everyone for everything.

What other people think of you, is none of your business.

Time heals almost everything. Give time, time.

However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

The best is yet to come. BELIEVE.

No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

Do the right thing.

Spend time with your loved ones often.

Each night before you go to bed, complete the following statements:
"I am thankful for..."
"Today I have accomplished..."

Remember that you are too blessed to be too stressed.

Enjoy the ride. Remember that this isn't Disney World and you certainly don't want a fast pass. Make the most of it and enjoy the ride.

WOW!

Sin City

2008-08-05T00:59:00.000-07:00

Waking up with a bottle-of-red-wine induced hangover at 6am is never easy, and is extremely painful, especially on a Saturday morning. I had gone out for dinner the previous night with my monkey, letting the wine do most of the talking and later stumbling into the house with red-stained lips and teeth, I struggled to go to sleep as early as I intended. As I groaned and dragged myself out of bed, I thought I had enough time to get ready before my sidekick Liesel picked me up early that godforsaken morning, so everything went in slow slow motion as I went through my routine and finished packing my bags. Only Liesel arrived 15 minutes earlier than I thought she would, so slow motion turned into fast forward as I gathered my suitcase, leftover cold pizza (best for a hangover, yum) and bottle of water to cure my dehydration, and jumped in the car.

So why were we up so early when I should have been sleeping in, you ask? We were off to Sun City for our annual work conference. Some of you might remember that last year I was lucky enough to score a single room at the Palace. Well, yours truly got lucky second time around too, only this time I was sharing with Liesel, which was awesome nonetheless, as she is a party animal of note.

After a 15 minute detour, no thanks to the GPS (I still think those things are useless, use a map dammit! Much more trustworthy!), we arrived at Sun City with about 30 minutes to spare. We left our luggage in the car and went to register, and get some coffee and pastries before the long procession of events began. Our division was decked out in black and white sports jackets, the men with red socks (hardly noticeable) and the women with crappy, furry red scarfs that really belonged on a pimped-up dashboard. So it was easy to see our crowd of people, who made the majority of the bank. In total, our bank had about 1000 attendees at this conference. Surely, we must have taken over most of the resort.

At 10am sharp, we all marched into the Superbowl and found our designated round tables, filled with notebooks and pens for doodling, and water and refreshments. The choir opened the conference, their powerful voices filling the crowded hall. They never fail to impress me, and by the end of the day they almost had me in tears as the music got to me. It was so emotional. Damn, that sounds gay.

We sat most of the day watching hilarious videos (people getting caught looking at themselves through a one-way mirror and sampling food that’s still “alive”) and presentations done by our talented people, including a little Borat video that had me in stitches. I was even caught on camera during this little film, how embarrassing. And it’s true, the camera does add weight to a person…

After all the awards, speeches, lunch, tea, sneaking off to the bar for drinks (Liesel and I couldn’t sit still), we finally staggered to the palace to check in and get ready for the evening partytjie. The palace rooms are truly luxurious, I hope one day I can come back with monkey.

We got ready in no time and had enough time to spare to meet some of the boys at the palace bar, until we got in the lift, that is. It’s only three floors but the stairs are hard to find in that maze of rooms so we got in and stopped on the second floor as more people got in. And more, and more, and more. Some people thought it would be funny to get in as many of us as we could (and more) into the lift. This felt worse than a UNO jam. So, for a tiny lift that couldn’t hold more than 8 normally sized people, it had to put up with over 15 people, some of them a little bit on the porky side, if you ask me. Poor me was squeezed into a corner right at the back, and being claustrophobic, I struggled to breathe and panicked as the doors groaned shut. We got to the first floor but the doors refused to open. My panicking turned into hyperventilation, I had to get out of here! But no matter how many times the person in front pressed the open button, the doors refused to obey. I struggled to even move, it got extremely hot in there in a matter of seconds and the air seemed to disappear fast. Our alarm button was completely ignored by security, and try as we might to force the doors open, it looked as if we were going to spend the rest of the evening squashed like sardines in there. I tried to remain calm and quiet, fearing someone might slap me for being such a girl, but as the air was scarce, my breathing became heavier and heavier.

The worst thing was that we had no cellphone reception in the there so there was no way to even get one of our colleagues to come to our rescue. Ten minutes in there seemed like 10 hours. Then one of the guys managed to get the doors open a few inches and as some cool air creeped in, we started to scream for help. Our calls remained unanswered for a while until finally one of our colleagues who was passing by, forced the doors open from the outside to let us all out. Being right at the back, I was one of the last ones to get out, in spite of some of the gentlemen letting me go before them (there were that many people in there), and as I stepped over the threshold, I almost fainted as I breathed in the rush of fresh air. Call me a weakling, call me a pussy, but I never want to go through that again. If I didn’t have such bad luck with stairs too (I was born a klutz), I would avoid lifts altogether.

So that ruined our stop at the bar as there wasn’t enough time left for a much needed stiff drink. We caught the bus back to the Superbowl, only to be met with a huge crowd of our people waiting for the doors of the Superbowl to open and let them in. So we got a drink outside and waited, and waited. Just before 20h00 we were let in and raced to get a good table.

We had more and more speeches and finally got to eat dinner just before 22:00. I was starving and glad that the choice of food was incredible and delicious. I even had dessert. I was once again disappointed to see that our entertainment this year was Freshlyground. Yes, as monkey pointed out to me, they are very good and a truly successful band due to their diversity, but they hardly appeal to me. I sulked by the bar and downed several spontaneously invented suitcases (SoCo instead of Jack, so what would you call them? Handbags? Lol), I was ready to party as the dizziness took over. I got kakked out for continuously sms’ing my sorely missed monkey, so I said goodnight, put the phone away and ran to the dancefloor once the band left and the DJ came on stage. Only the DJ was not up to my liking. Throughout the night, he played a few of my favourite songs, and whole string of crappy ones.

As I was trying to avoid sickness and a major hangover, I stopped drinking just before midnight, as I was sure my mood wasn’t about to improve no matter how much I drank. I danced as much as I could, even a bit of langarm, but eventually I called it quits after chowing a huge much-needed hamburger at 2am. Liesel was in full form and didn’t want me to leave, but I felt a migraine coming on so I bid my farewells, sad to be outlasted by most of the “older generation”. I took the bus back to the palace, and because I still felt very much awake, I dawdled and was in bed just before 4am.

I couldn’t really sleep, and was even awake when Liesel came back at 6am. If I got two hours sleep, I was lucky. But I didn’t feel tired when I got up just before 8am, showered and packed my stuff. We went for a quick bite downstairs, wishing we could have stayed for longer as we drooled over the huge selection of treats at the Palace’s buffet tables. They even had waffles! But fragile as I was feeling that morning, all I could swallow were 2 little croissants.

The ride back was much quicker (no detours lol) despite running into a few traffic cops on the way. The weather was perfect for a bike ride and I watched as the most beautiful bikes raced past us.

Liesel dropped me off at church just around 11:30 for my meeting with the Spring Festival committee. Once that was done, a sickie monkey, who also partied way too much the previous night, picked me up so we could go visit his parents. We then went to his place and I helped him with his filing of credit card statements etc, which hadnt been looked at since 2005. Men are so useless at this, looks like I am going to have to bully him into doing this on a regular basis.

We went to bed extremely tired, as we were both ready to pass out, but since he had a sore throat, he was awake most of the night, which meant that I was awake too. It was really tough getting up the next morning, and even though he took me to work that freezing morning on the bike, I was quite late. Thank goodness my boss took the day off, otherwise he would have hanged me on the spot. After suffering most of the day, almost overdosing on myprodol and falling asleep, I went to bed early last night and sighed happily as I closed my eyes and fell asleep. Aaaaaaahhh.

Oh Carol

2008-07-31T07:13:00.000-07:00

I took a walk to Sandton City earlier, needing to get some fresh air after beeing cooped up in the dealing room all week, just getting up to go to the loo and to get the occassional cup of coffee. Besides the aching feet, blisters and all, it was a rather successful trip, having avoided extravagant purchases (times are hard, hey). But I could not resist walking into CNA, it's the one shop I just have to have to have to frequently visit to drool at DVDs, CDs, books and mags, my one-stop heaven. I didnt walk out empty-handed. While browsing through the sale baskets, I managed to find some gems, CDs that no one wanted, for a mere R39.99. I found good ol' oldies like Judas Priest, Smokie, Cranberries, The Bangles (yes, they were good, ok?) and Cypress Hill.

As soon as I got back to my desk, I ripped them all on my laptop so I could take a trip down memory lane while I bored myself to tears with my work. And lo and behold, as I randomly browsed through my selection, I saw that Smokie had a song called "Oh Carol". I didnt even know this one existed. Well, fuck me sideways, just how many songs are there based on my soddy name? And why always pick on the Carols, Carolines, Carolinas (I have been called all three at one time or another)??? I am sure this must be the most common name to write a song about? Or am I wrong? I am a victim of musos out there!

Lol, without trying to sound arrogant or letting it all go to my head, since I dont think anyone has actually written a song about ME (though I have being serenaded a few times several songs that do in fact have some variation of my name in it), lets list some of these gawdforsaken songs:

1. Oh Carol - Smokie (I'm listening to it now)
2. Oh Carol - Neil Sedaka (one of my faves)
3. Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond
4. Oh Carolina - Shaggy
5. Oh Carol - Boyzone
6. Carol - The Rolling Stones
7. Caroline - Outkast (hilarious. My shit really dont stink, ok?)

And I'm sure there are more. Know of any? FFS.

Hey, and dont forget about the freakin', bloody Christmas Carols - even they couldnt leave my name alone. And oh, how ironic that one is, hahahaha (for those that dont know me, I was born on Christmas Day). How bloody hilarious.

What do you get when...

2008-07-30T04:52:00.001-07:00

...an accountant, a lawyer, a java developer and a high school dropout go cruising in a Daewoo appliance of a car one late Saturday afternoon? Complete and utter chaos. Catastrophe! And no, this is not one of those an accountant etc walk in a bar type of joke, though it may well sound like it! Hahahaha.

So, the story goes like this. Saturday afternoon, the above culprits, aka Weasel, Ferdi, Shawn and Basti, armed with booze and meat, were making their way to Michikin’s birthday braai, having just picked Basti up from his home. Now anyone who has been privy to Weasel’s driving skills, will get an idea as to what happened next. He can get a “tad” adventurous every now and then, and this is what he did said Saturday afternoon driving down quiet Kessel Street.

According to my narrator, Ferdi, there was a woman driving in front of them, followed by a metro police car. The former was driving painfully slow, with her hazards on, so the police car decided to overtake. This wasn’t speedy enough for dear old Weasel “I think I am better than Schumacher” so he decided to overtake the police car! AT THE SAME TIME!!! So picture this, three cars driving abreast, in the same direction. Holy mother of cows, what was he thinking???

So of course, he gets pulled over by the police, which consisted of a chubby woman and a small trainee officer. All four delinquents get told to get out the car, open the boot (which of course was full of alcohol) and put their hands on the roof of the car. As Martin later pointed out to Ferdi, at this stage it would have been really funny (or not) if Basti had bolted back home. Imagine him being chased by this pair? I would have rolled on the floor with laughter. Wait, actually, imagine Basti RUNNING!!!! Bwhahahahahaha.

Ferdi felt a bit courageous and took his hands off the car for a moment, maybe to scratch his ass or pick his nose, who knows, but immediately he gets snarled at by the female cop to “put his hands back on the car”. The poor trainee had the honour of searching the boys, and played a game of what’s that in your pocket. “What’s that?” “It’s my wallet”. “Take it out”. “What’s that?” “My cellphone”. “Take it out”. “What’s that?” “Nothing, I am just happy to see you”. Right.

After all that, Weasel gets reprimanded for driving recklessly and so they let them all go. I can just imagine the giggles in the car afterwards. And all this before they even got to the party! Gotta love Weasel. Lol

The Boring Form

2008-07-29T01:14:00.000-07:00

You know how you sometimes get these emails asking you to fill in random, sometimes very useless information about yourself and then forward it on to all your friends (who should really all know you by now)? Well, lately I have been getting them once too often and I have to admit that boredom gets the better of me. I complete them all and select a few victims to send this to. They probably don’t even bother reading them (I mean, really, some of them are flippen long) but occasionally I get a few replies here and there. So here I have compiled some of the most useless questions, and come up with some wacky answers – do you honestly think I am going to give you my home address and criminal record here? Think again.

Happy reading. Or not. Your funeral.

Full Name: Queen Cazzy of the Evil Underworld
Date and Place of Birth: 25 December 1 000 000 BC, Hell
No, no, your REAL Date of Birth: Um, 2 000 000 BC???
Height: Short-ish
Weight: Big bum, so….
Sex: Anytime
Home Address: 6 Burn Drive, Hot-in-the-City, 666, Dungeon Province, Evil Underworld
Profession: That’s obvious - Ruler of all evil
Hobbies: Biting necks, sucking blood, collecting toe nails
Interesting Bodily Scars: Use your imagination, I have been around for a while and carry a lot of plasters around with me.
Academic Qualifications: Honours in Evil Spells and Rituals
Previous Jobs: Tom, Dick and Harry
Blood Type: Red and lots of it. Yummy.
Car Type: Flaming Lamborghini
Criminal Record: Stole plenty of hearts
Do you like blue cheese: Yes, it goes well with toenails. And hearts
Do you own a gun? FFS, I am the Queen of the Evil Underworld, why would I need a gun?
Wax or Shave Bodyparts? I prefer to tweeze
Real or Fake Nails: I am all real, baby
Favourite Christmas Song: Jingle Bells Ferdi Smells
What do you prefer to drink in the morning: A bloody Mary (preferably a nun)
Do you have ADD? What? Me? Um, what? Ooooo look! Shiny paper!
Worst Trait: Burping out the alphabet
Favourite Sport: Gladiators
Dislikes: Goody-too-shoes, avocado
Favourite Place to Be: Cazzfest Dungeon
Do you own slippers? Hell no, only pussies and old wrinkly grannies wear slippers. I wear flip flop.
Favourite Colour: Fuchsia
Song you sing in the shower: I love you, you love me, Barney gave me HIV
What’s in your pocket right now? A banana
How many pets do you have? One monkey and three penguins (and boy, do they complain about the heat! All I hear is “where’s the f*cking snow? Damn global warming!!!! Where’s the f*cking snow?)
What were you doing at midnight? Gravedancing
What time did you get up this morning? I don’t sleep
Favourite TV Show: Dexter (Oh this is so true)
Last film you saw at the cinema: Dark Night – bloody fantastic. Anyone want to let me do the pencil trick on them? Moooohahahahhaha
Breakfast: Entrails
Favourite Item of Clothing: My red cape, much better and less gay than Superman’s
Favourite Vacation: Mars
Morning / Night Person: I am a creature of the night
What did you want to be when you were little: Big
How are you today? Full of shit
What are you listening to right now? The voices in my head. You should listen in on the conversation, we are talking about cloning Ferdi.
If you were a fruit, what would you be? Gay
Favourite toy as a child? Whips and chains
What is under your bed? My toenail collection
What’s the time? GET A FREAKIN WATCH YOU MORON!!!
Favourite Holiday: All Hell’s Eve
What would you like to accomplish before you die? Team up with Eric Cartman and hide all the hippies in his basement.

I certify that all of the above is – COMPLETE BULLSHIT.

Double Whammy

2008-07-28T05:27:00.000-07:00

Getting up on Saturday morning was a mission and a half so while Ruan and Tai went to do some shopping, I got ready in slooooow motion. The day I had been waiting for weeks had finally arrived – Thornfest 2 at Tempos! Hell Yeah!

By the time the boys got back, armed with pizza and guitar strings, I was ready to rock ‘n headbang. Until I finished my breakfast/lunch, then sleepiness kicked in so Ruan and I took a power nap which almost made us late! We arrived just in time to see Tempos packed with rockers; 5 on the dot to see our buddies, Fragmented Children. Their new female vocalist, Sam, never failed to amaze me. Boy, can this girl scream! You rock, babe!

After that we watched Deity’s Muse, a band I really dig to watch but don’t often get the chance to do so. What a talented band. After that we mostly hung around the bar, waiting for the next band to finish so our boys could get on stage. Sometime after 7, Torment finally came on. We moshed, we drank Jager, we took lots of self-portraits, heheh. But most of all, we rocked our asses off. What a great crowd!

Then it was back to the bar for some more damage though I managed to watch some of Knave and Chromium as well. My memory is a bit fuzzy (damn those suitcases) but we all had a kickass time, forgetting that we had to be here the next day for another round of damage.

I woke up the next morning with a pounding headache and mounting hunger for some sustenance. Getting up was not an option, but after much insistence from Ruan that I had 3 hours to get ready to get to Tempos (I do not take THAT long, pffft); I got up, miffed a bit then began my cleansing process. Turns out that I took less than hour and still had a few minutes to spare, hmmm.

While Tai took all the gear in the car, Ruan and I raced to Tempos in his bike. What a thrilling ride. I’m getting used to the speed very quickly now; 180km/h seems like nothing! Go FASTER FASTER FASTER!!! We made it a few seconds before 3, just as we were told. Most of the band was already there, chilling and looking as fresh as daisies, lol.

I swore I was only going to drink coke and/or water, but I thought, what the hell, lets have some brandy and coke, though this time I paced myself a great deal. And only ONE shooter, right at the end.

This time Torment played on the upper stage, which I rather hate cause I have to look up to see the band. And it doesn’t allow for much interaction from the crowd since they are so high up. Sunday’s crowd was much older, quieter and since most of us were pretty hungover from the previous night, we made quiet a dead, boring, audience. But that didn’t bother the boys as they had fun on stage and mucked about a bit. I had a good laugh when dearest monkey broke his guitar strap near the end but still managed to finish the song, albeit badly (so he says).

We hung around for about an hour after that, then had another awesome ride on the bike back home so I could pack my stuff and get ready to go to the movies with Eugene and Rene. We waited for Tai to get back with the car then drove to Cresta. I was feeling beat and sleepy after all this partying but I was amped to see the Dark Night so I made an effort to stay awake – though I gave in halfway through the movie, closed my eyes and I was gone. Not that the movie was boring, cause it wasn’t. Heath Ledger (RIP) was absolutely brilliant and hilarious as the Joker, and Christian Bale super suave and handsome as Bruce Wayne/Batman. But after a few nudges from Ruan, I was wide awake and caught the last twenty minutes or so of the movie. Guess, I will have to watch it again!

What a weekend!

(check facebook for more pics!)

Back to the 80s!

2008-07-27T23:42:00.000-07:00

My Friday night turned out to be more eventful than expected. Since my hairier half was having a quick band session that evening and catching up with me later, I decided to indulge in a long bath and take my time getting ready. I had barely set one foot out of the bath when I get a phone call from Bianca. I contemplated not answering since I hate answering the phone in the bathroom (people sometimes think you are doing something else in there) and returning her call a little later, but something made me pick it up immediately. I am glad that I did. She phoned to tell me that she was picking me up in 15 minutes (15 minutes!!!) and taking me to Mousetrap at the Dome; the boys would be joining us later.

It’s amazing how quick I can be when given a little push, because I am famous for dawdling (spelling), poor Ruan has had to put up with that a lot. I got dressed, stuffed a ridiculous amount of clothes and toiletries in my gym bag and was ready to party by the time Bianca and her friend Julie arrived. Dragging my extremely heavy bag, I jumped into the car and off we went.

We got there just before 8 so the place was still practically empty and took a long time before the crowds started to fill the venue. The theme of the evening was mostly 80s and some 90s music, plus with tons of drinks specials, we were in our element!

Several drinks later we got some courage and strutted our stuff on the dance floor while the boys sat and watched. Poor things looked extremely bored but us girls were having so much fun we just couldn’t stop. It had been a long long time since I last danced so much. It reminded me of my good old days at Bourbon Street and Hurricanes. Damn, I miss those days! (and doesn’t that make me sound like an old fart, heheh).

There is nothing better than 80s music. Who can’t help but sing along to the likes of Starship, The Dyvinils, KC and the Sunshine Band and more. The DJ also played some good old rock tunes from Bon Jovi, AC/DC and Green Day. That’s when my monkey actually joined me for a dance or two. He wanted to leave early, but each time I convinced him to stay “for another 5 minutes”.

We left just after midnight, but not before a whole stack of balloons were dropped from the ceiling, with little freebies inside. I popped one and got a free shooter voucher, I think it was called Dynamite. Considering all the bugs Bianca and Julie bought for us, I was surprised I managed to have just one more shooter.

On the way home we stopped for some sustenance and then off to the bat cave, since the weekend was just starting for us! HECTIC! Stay tuned for more…

Gimme da beef, not da shicken!!!!

2008-07-23T23:38:00.000-07:00

As I was surreptiously walking through the aisles of CNA at Cresta last night, I get a call from my Dad telling me we have been invited to dinner at Jimmy’s Prawns by Shawn’s family and that I had to cut my shopping experience short, race home and get ready. First thought, family outing – yay, we haven’t had one of those in ages. I was actually excited, who would have thought. Second thought – oh shit, its prawns, I don’t freaking eat freaking prawns!!!

Many would agree that I am a fussy person when it comes to food, and I have been forced to admit that I am. Even as a child, I would throw myself on the floor in a fit of rage if I didn’t get the food I specifically wanted. When I think back, I cant believe that I hated tomatoes and spinach (picture a tomato-less pizza – just dough and cheese. Yes, my poor mother was forced to do that for me). Something I still loathe and abhor, is chicken and seafood.

It’s actually funny how many people forget that I only eat beef (and it has to be well done. Dead actually. Don’t give me something that’s still alive cause I wont eat it). Just the other day, I was having lunch at the Baron with some work mates, and one of the “hot topics” of conversation over several bottles of red wine, was my particular distaste of chicken, and its origins. The very next day, while poking through the “delicacies” that were being offered by three people who were celebrating their birthdays, one of my colleagues, who was present at the lunch the day before, tried to offer me a prawn cake. I looked at him as if he was crazy, and he returned the look when I told him I don’t eat that stuff. Slowly, our previous conversation dawned on him. I swear, some people have the memory of a goldfish. Yes, I know its not common for someone to hate chicken and seafood, but please people, make this mental note stick: I ONLY EAT BEEF! Everything else is excluded (not only chicken and seafood – note, anything that comes from the SEA, don’t try give me oysters, caviar, or prawns, I WONT EAT IT – pork, lamb, kudu, ostrich, crocodile, cat, dog.). Funny enough, I eat ham and bacon. Weird – told you I was fussy.

So why all the fuss? Well, seafood is smelly. If my mother tries to cook that in our house, I try stay as far away as possible as the smell is bad enough to bring my last meal right back up. The other meats just give me the creeps for one reason or other. The chicken, however, has the best story.

Some of my earliest memories go as far back as when I was a tadpole. Joking. When I was two, living in the house my grandfather had built in Buenos Aires, Argentina, we had several chickens in a coop in our modest garden. Every morning I would go and feed them, and play with them. They were my very own “pet” chickens (now I think where my preference not to have pets comes from as well. Geez, my parents f*cked up my childhood).

One bleak and dreary morning (might have been sunny, but due to the following course of events, I am making it as horrible as possible), I go out to the garden to get up to my usual mischief and self-entertainment, when horror of horrors, I was faced with a bloody scene before my eyes. Standing by a table, with a big, bloody knife and mean look on her face, was my aunt (may she rest in peace), butchering one of my chickens for what would supposedly be our next lunch. I cant recall what happened next, just that scene stayed permanently glued to my brain, reminding me of that gruesome morning.

Needless to say, I never ate chicken after that. My mother tried to trick me several times by “sneaking” in the chicken in my food. Many times she succeeded, but eventually I outsmarted her every time and refused to eat until she made me something else. Ok, go ahead and say it – I am spoilt brat. To this day, I get something different to eat when she cooks chicken. I will not eat it.

Funny enough, I have seen one or two cows being slaughtered at one time or another, but these events happened at a much later stage when I was old enough to understand where our food came from. And I never had a pet cow called Clarabelle or Daisy. So it was all good. And no one can keep me away from a good old hamburger from McDs or Wimpy. Impossible.

I tried to go vegetarian once to be a bit healthier since unfortunately I had to pick the worst meat for my daily nutritional needs. That lasted about two months. I couldn’t resist the hamburgers, and steaks. And having pasta without bolognaise sauce was just not on.

So going back to our family outing last night, I was glad to see that the menu included some non-seafood delights like one of my favourites, rump steak. Well done, of course. Dead. Not alive. Accompanied by some awesome, crispy onion rings and chips, I was stuffed and satisfied, but not before I indulged in a Lindt chocolate mousse pancake. Weasel was convinced his name was written on the pancake with white chocolate, and after much irritation and persistence, he scored more than half of it since I could not devour any more of the chocolate richness. A small taste of it would have been enough.

The dinner was quite fun and enjoyable but I soon realised why we don’t go out as a family often – you cant take these people anywhere. For Christmas, I am getting Ferdi and Weasel one of those little old lamps you get to call the waiter. Then they can switch it on and off to their hearts content.

How about makin’ bacon? (that’s one for Ferdi)

Mooooooooooooo.

Tales from the gym

2008-07-23T06:58:00.000-07:00

After a 3 month-plus hiatus, I returned to the gym, huffing and puffing, on Monday night. Having barely recovered from a two week long bronchitis and flu, I might have been a bit over-zealous as I almost passed out on the bike. But determined as I am, I stuck to my guns and completed a 40 minute workout, ran for my life in the pitch dark back home while the cold air burned my lungs and did weights and stretched for another 40 minutes.

While at the gym, I realised why I enjoy going there so much. Not only for the great sudden burst of energy and all-round feeling you get after a good workout, but also for all the weird and wonderful characters that you come across there. Even after my long absence from the gym, I saw that not much had changed since then. The energetic masses, from all walks of life, were there to work off their winter indulgences, pretty much like I was.

You have the hot studs (mainly the gym instructors) who pull back their shoulders and walk around like they own the place – I still cant help staring and drooling. They mainly hang around the circuit as doing cardio is almost beneath them.

Then you have the pretty, fragile Barbies who barely break a sweat so as not to pull a hair out of place or ruin their label workout outfits. But then again, they don’t really need to exercise, do they?

The ones that really make me laugh though, are the trolls and freaks. Which hole they crawled out of, I don’t know. These people certainly are not worried about their appearances and would make Vernon Koekemoer’s wardrobe look like Armani. Picture neon gym shorts in all sorts of bright, beautiful colours, thick striped baggy pyjama pants, oversized tank tops and those stupid boxing championship belts (someone loves to show off).

So yeah, liquorice all sorts at the gym. Now I am contemplating whether I should get off my lazy ass today and make another round trip over there. Having stuffed my face with sweet delights at work, maybe I should?

My Obsession with Jared Leto continues...

2008-04-30T02:37:00.000-07:00

I got my first ink on Monday morning. It was time. For some reason I switched on my phone two hours before my alarm was scheduled to go off. It was as if my psyche was telling me to do so. I didnt get up though, I just lay there and groaned as my neck ached. Five minutes later, my phone rang and I croakely answered. It was the tattoo parlour asking me to come earlier as they wanted to close up shop at 13:00, since it was a public holiday. I looked at my watch, that gave me two hours to crawl out of bed, so I muttered a "ok" and hung up. Everything went in slow motion as I dragged my sore body to Cresta.

My hands were shaking, not so much for being nervous but due to the fact that I was hungover and hadnt eaten much in the last 3 days. I handed over my design and waited patiently while they prepared everything. Five minutes later I was called in and so began my moment of torture.

Only, it wasnt anything like torture. I barely felt any pain as the needle went into my skin, filling it with the black ink. I suppose having been poked and probed by needles of my life, this was a piece of cake. All I felt was a tingling sensation. 10 minutes and it was all over. I looked at my wrist and saw with pride my very first tattoo.

So what did I get? The 30 Seconds to Mars glyphics, thats what! Heheheh. I cant get enough of this band. But not only that, the symbols look really awesome, and fit my wrist perfectly. I love it. I checked several sites to get the exact meaning of them, and while there is no sure translation, there are two possible meanings:

The first being "30 Seconds to Mars", of course.

The second, one which I prefer more, are the four terrestrial planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

Another meaning, which I came up with in jest, is "I love Jared Leto", bwhahahaha.

Could this be the start of a meaningful relationship with ink and needles? I hope not. I know that it becomes very addictive and I dont want to end up looking like a walking, breathing painting. But I definitely wouldn't mind a few more "obscure" tattoos here and there. Only time will tell.

Seasons Wither 2!!!!

2008-04-28T05:10:00.000-07:00

Painkillers, I NEED painkillers! Those were my first thoughts when I got rudely awakened this morning by the sounds of the vaccuum cleaner sucking up the mess downstairs. My ears were ringing badly enough as it was and no matter what, I couldnt go back to sleep. But Im not really complaining, all the aches and pains, the bruises, the loud ringing, it was all worth it. Seasons Wither 2 was even better than its predecessor! If only the day hadn't flown!

After much partying this weekend, I felt that nothing could get me down in anticipation of this event. And it didnt. We got to the Dome just after 12, and having quickly inspected the inside of Partyhouse and Rock Domination, transformed into the most amazing setting for a rock concert of note, with 3 stages, we quickly raced to McDonalds to line our stomachs. Well, I raced, the fat boys seemed to be in no hurry.

Having to adjust to light and dark as we exited and entered Partyhouse proved to be quite difficult, especially for someone like me that hates the bright daylight in my eyes (spoken like a true vamp). Once inside, you sorta forgot that it was actually daytime outside. Berny and I got our treasured Seasons Wither 2 tshirts, kicked off with a shot of tequila and parked by the Main Stage which looked amazing with 3 screens featuring the SW2 logo in a blast of fire.

First band was Elysium and I had a good giggle when Ferdi told me that the screamo vocalist was his boss' son. Not bad for a bunch of teenagers, but they totally destroyed Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit. Next up was one of my favourite bands, my boys from Fragmented Children. We all were looking forward to hearing their new vocalist, a chick this time, who was performing her final audition at SW2. Wooohooo! She seemed a bit nervous, which is understandable and unfortunately we couldnt hear her properly, but from what we COULD hear, she sounded hardcore and could belt out those screams without much effort. She definitely got my vote, especially since we got a killer mosh pit going and even I dared to join - thats quite an achievement! So boys, I hope you she's here to stay, she's definitely a keeper! YOU ROCK! And Ray, shot for the drum stick!!!!

We took a bit of a break after that, walking around for stuff to do, of which there was plenty, and meeting tons of friends here and there. Berny took a shot at the mechanical bull and last about 10 seconds while making funny sounds. I got the video clip - hilarious! Hee hee. We entered the Guitar Hero comp as well, but despite getting assistance from Julia, we both sucked heheh. Guess I can kiss my dreams of becoming the next Slash goodbye!

Several Smirnoff Storms later, we returned to the Main Stage to catch the last bits of Unlisted. I regretted not staying to watch Facing the Gallows and missing most of Agro, but I really wanted to watch New Found Disorder, a band I have been wanting to see for ages, at the Rock Domination stage. Before that we caught the last bits of Reach, another band I have been wanting to see and then headbanged till our heads almost rolled, to New Found Disorder. Smokin'!!!!!

Our plans kind of faltered after that (I wanted to watch Only Forever and missed them :( Oh well)as we got lured by Louis from Knave on stage for some Metal Karaoke. It didnt take much arm twisting to get me to sing, since I have always loved the attention heheh. Dreams of being a rock star almost came true as I kicked off the competition by being the first on stage and giving the audience my rendition of Guns n Roses' Sweet Child of Mine. I have always loved to imitate Axl Rose's voice but instead, I sounded more like a girly Sheryl Crow. Berny swears I sounded good but after having watched a short video clip of me singing, Im not so sure. Still, it was fun and was amazed at how comfortable I felt on stage. Stage fright, me? NEVER! I was born to perform. Makes me wish I had auditioned for Fragmented Children! Hee hee. Never mind, just you wait, one day I will start a band baby! Start a band!

Needless to say, I didnt win and in retrospect I wish I had sung another more hardcore song, but as always, it was the guys that outperformed the chicks (there were two of us, a girl sang Nirvana's Smells like Teen Spirit after me, though we couldnt really hear her). Zack impressed me by singing an AC/DC song (cant remember which one) and the guy that followed, was absolutely kickass with Metallica's Enter Sandman. Last guy totally killed Evanescence's Bring Me to Life, doing a metal version. Ugh. Berny and I helped out in the end when Louis shoved another mic in front of us, hahhahahahahaha.

We then raced back to the main stage to catch the Torment boys in action. I secured myself a prime spot in front by the stage steps. We went totally apeshit as Wez and the boys rocked our socks off. What a performance! I attempted to enter the mosh pit as Wez went down and joined the crowd but ran out as soon as I entered, having clashed with Wez and biting my lip open. Bleeding lips - heheheh, Berny! I sucked the blood clean and carried on partying.

We stayed put as next were Chromium. Cant believe its been so long since I last saw these guys. It was cool that they changed the order of their songs around as I was getting too used to their routine. More headbanging, more screaming, more fists in the air. Hell Yeah, I was rockin' baby! I even got Jared's sweaty armband as sweet Llewellyn caught it and handed it to me. Shot, dude!

I could feel weary after all that, the long day was catching up with me so I mellowed out a bit and sat by the bar as Knave came on. 16 Stitch I watched from afar and returned back to front as soon as Pestroy came on - I hadnt seen them in over a year, methinks. It was difficult trying to avoid the mosh pit, I would have gladly joined it but I was too buggered and bruised so I pushed aside anyone that got near me.

I really wanted to stay to watch Underbelly after that, but clearly we were all worn out by the day's kick ass performances by quality, hardcore SA bands. Bed was calling us all, and so we slowly dragged our feet to the parking lot; I dozed off as we journeyed home.

So who needs international bands when we have all this amazing (how many times have I used this word today? But honestly, I was totally amazed!) talent right here on our soil? I take my hat off to Bo and the rest of the organisers who put together such an outstanding event. You are a ROCK QUEEN, Bo! Cant wait to see what else you have in store for us! THANK YOU!

(see facebook for more pics)

And finally - PART THREE

2008-04-14T07:24:00.000-07:00

(sorry for the delays, Im so lazy. Also, sorry for the poor quality of the pics, need a new camera!!!)

After Kaiser Chiefs, I lost half my crowd as more people crammed into the Golden Circle to see Good Charlotte. I hadn’t realised just how identical Joel and Benji Madden were, as I have never really paid any attention to their music videos or seen any pics of them together. Miss Paris (b*tch, slut, hoe) Hilton was seen sitting on the side of the stage, filming and waving to her “adoring fans” (little did she know that they were actually shouting obscenities at her). Pity she wasn’t within throwing distance…

What really annoyed me was that she practically stole the limelight – if you had to look at newspaper reviews the next day, it was all about her, nothing about the bands!!!! Even on MTV-Base, the presenter spent all day looking for Paris. Surprisingly, she never found her. Please, next time, stay at home Paris!
I must admit that GC put on a good show, they really got the crowd going and everyone knew most of their songs – what can you expect from a typical SA crowd that mostly loves teeny bubblegum music? Don’t get me wrong, I like their music too, especially their latest stuff, but I’m not their biggest fan. When “Dancefloor Anthem”, my favourite song of theirs (the words mean so much to me) came on, I looked around for Mich and Berny so we could go mad together but they were nowhere to be seen. Luckily Caressa was with me so we went crazy together. Though I had to carefully control my movements as I hadn’t been to the loo since Wonderboom! Heheh.

It seems that fatherhood has made Joel Madden really soft as he sang The Cure’s “Love Song” which he dedicated to his newborn daughter, Harlow (Nicole Richie being the mommy, who had to stay behind and look after the brat, while Paris is off touring with the band). Can everyone go “AWWWWWW”? The crowd did. I almost gagged. He ended off with a big speech before his last song “Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous”, about how, despite their success, how much this song still means to them, bla bla bla. Paris was nowhere in sight, lol. A dig at her, perhaps?

As soon as they were done, I pushed past everyone and ran to the loos. I was quite impressed at how clean they still were being kept, however there wasn’t much to wash my hands with. Earlier, on my first trip to the loo, there was no water at all, so desperately I paid a girl standing nearby me, R10 for her half full water bottle! She thought I was crazy but hey, I need clean hands! Lol.

It was already quite dark, and as I made my way back to the Golden Circle I managed to track down most of my crew on the phone. We all parked right by the Circle entrance and sat down to watch Chris Cornell. None of us were really amped to see him and after the long day, we just chilled and watched from afar. I was a bit disappointed as I looked at my friends and saw the sad, tired, little looks on their faces. I hoped that this would soon change once Korn came on, cause the best was yet to come!

I think I only got up once when Chris Cornell sang one of his old songs from his Soundgarden days “Black Hole Sun”, still one of my favourite songs (yes, I have many favourites). I got out my bubbles bottle and blew a few while Mich and Tanya raced around to catch them. Ok, they didn’t race, they just stood there and caught them, LOL.

We moved a little bit closer to see Muse but we were still quite far from the stage. I think most people were there to see Muse, though for us, the big act of the evening was sure to be Korn. I love Muse’s songs, but I rarely made any effort to move around as I was saving my energy for later. They opened with the mighty “Knights of Cydonia”, however their stage presence was a bit disappointing, Matthew Bellamy barely spoke to the crowd, he just went from one song to the other.

When they finished, I saw that a lot of people made their way out of the Golden Circle, which made it much easier for Berny and me to move right to the front. Our spot wasn’t ideal, as we were on the far right of the stage, but we still had a good view. I felt the people from behind pushing towards the front, as more headbangers got closer and packed us like sardines. I was worried that we would get sucked in to a moshpit as soon as Korn came on, and I would have gladly joined in had my back not threatened to snap open. Funny enough, none of those people ended up moshing in the end – very disappointing, especially for the likes of Ferdi.

The wait for Korn seemed to take forever, Berny was getting restless and I was worried that she was going to turn around and join the rest at the back. But luckily she stuck around with me. Finally, the music started and Jonathan came on stage, wearing a camo kilt followed by thousands of loud screams from adoring fans. I badly wanted to see what was under that kilt but there was no way I could get a good look, lol.

The crowd went crazy as he played some of the old greats, with his psychedelic mic, like “A.D.I.D.A.S.”, “Falling Away from Me”, “Coming Undone”, “Faggot”, “Got the Life” etc.

The genius of a legend called Jonathan Davis didn’t fail to impress us when he came on stage with his bag pipes. We were all hoping he would. What a talented man. I am so glad I have a video clip of that.

Their performance seemed way too short to me (I later heard their set was cut by approx 5-6 songs due to time constraints) but they came back for an encore and did two more songs. They got an awesome standing ovation in the end (duh, we were all already standing, hahahahha!) and each member went to every side of the stage to salute the crowd. The drummer threw his drum sticks and Munky several picks, but we failed to catch anything, even though one of the picks was thrown our way, it was too damn dark to see where it went.

Berny and I raced back to the cars in fear we would be left behind but we soon learnt that it was in vain to have hurried there. We got lost on the way as we couldn’t remember where we had parked and after trying to get hold of Weasel and Ferdi, Basti was the only one who answered his phone and directed us to the cars.

Immediately we saw that there was no way we were leaving the racecourse anytime soon as there was a huge traffic jam. Everyone was in a hurry to leave and there was only one way out. So instead we took off our muddy shoes and sat in the car waiting and waiting. Even though Berny and I were each sitting in our brothers’ cars which were parked next to each other, we logged onto mxit and chatted to each other, recounting the days events. We decided that Im going to hire 30 Seconds to Mars for Cazzfest, once Weasel makes his first million. Loooool.

I think we must have left there eventually around 2 am. We were home just before 3am and I got to bed at 4, since I had to degrease in the bath first and quench my incredible thirst – I hadnt drunk much since my drunken moshpit during 30 Secs and that was around 16:00pm!

All in all, I think this was an incredible day that would be hard to top. I had my aches and pains, but I had some of the best memories I could ever ask for, no blackouts, an absolute awesome day! Let’s hope 2009 will be of the same calibre!

Cokefest or Cockfest? PART TWO

2008-04-07T08:26:00.000-07:00

After 3 quick beers I was on top form, and danced and sang to Prime Circle anyway. Once they were done, I was getting quite loud and shouted “JARED!” every 5 minutes or so, till I almost lost my voice. The wait was long and to keep us entertained, I made friends with my neighbours and unashamedly flashed everyone while Berny and Tanya wrote a very rude message for Jared on my chest and stomach. In retrospect, I wish I hadn’t as I’m in no shape or form to be showing such parts of my anatomy – luckily Jared never got to see that as we were deep in mud and horseshit and couldn’t be lifted up by anyone. Phew!

The clock was ticking, and Jared and co still kept us waiting. So it was time to get out my infamous poster, with the very rude request for Jared:

Immediately cameras were pointed my way, people nearby turned to me and had a good laugh. I was sure that this would get Jared’s attention. Finally 5fm DJ Fresh came on stage, who made some funny comment about my poster (I wasn’t paying attention, I was waiting for Jared) and announced the next band: 30 SECONDS TO MARS! Thousands of screaming girls went berserk and swooned when Mr Leto finally came on stage, kicking a big red ball into the crowd. He was much shorter than I thought, and so damn skinny! But hotter than ever, even with the dark eyeshadow and guyliner. Whoever says he is gay, is just jealous, heheh.

Out of all the bands, he had the best stage presence and interacted well with the crowd, despite his continuous use of the F-word – not so attractive, Mr Leto. Having written 4 of the songs featured in the “Beautiful Lie” record in South Africa, he is quite fond of our country and reminded us every chance he got. He sang all the favourites, like “From Yesterday”, “A Beautiful Lie” and “The Kill”, with just about everyone singing along.

After lifting my rude poster several times, he finally noticed it, looked straight at me, and said something that went on like this (I barely remember, I was busy screaming my lungs out along with all the girls next to me): “We have a pervert here that wants my sperm. Ok, its kinda dirty, not something I’d usually do….etc etc etc my mind went blank after this. Someone told me that at the end he said “though…that could be FUN!” AAAAHHHHH!!!!
I was put on the big screen for all 35 000 people to see, including my poor brothers, lol. He had called me a pervert! I became famous! I fell in love!

Loser of the day: ESKOM! (though I don’t think they had anything to do with this here). Before Jared finished one of his last songs, the power went kaboom and all was silent. A frustrated Jared almost went off stage, but not before the crowd started to chant “F*CK ESKOM” and before we knew it, there was sound again. Very embarrassing.

However, he finished with a big bang, climbing right to the top of the scaffolding as the girls silently prayed that he wouldn’t fall to his death (I would have jumped and caught him) and the guys prayed that he would! Apparently he does this at every concert, but so what? He sure can climb fast! He came down just as fast, while a bunch of South African drummers joined him on stage to finish off the final song. What a finish! Before they went off, Jared promised that they would be signing autographs outside. I immediately said to Berny that we are running there and will stand to get his signature, even if we miss the rest of the bands!
She agreed and so we ran out as soon as Jared and co went off stage. At the backstage gate, we were told by security that they were signing on the other side of the stage. I dodged people here and there and eventually lost Berny as she couldn’t catch up with me. They were nowhere in sight and I was beginning to think that we were being lied to. After running twice around the whole racecourse, asking the Info people and getting stopped by several of my new-found “fans”, I slowly made my way back to the Golden Circle, sulking and cursing.

Kaiser Chiefs were already on, and I missed a few of their songs. I walked over several people before I found my crowd and caught the last of one of my fave songs “Everything is Average Nowadays”. I was happy to see that Amy, Lyndal, Tarryn, Dylan, Craig and Johan had joined us as well! Berny eventually caught up with me and we jammed to the songs. While I was blowing bubble into Martin’s face and the back of Johan’s head, I told Martin how I like to blow….bubbles. That’s when he asked me to turn around and introduced me to a guy called Bubbles. Hahaha, I had such a good laugh.

I then heard that Ferdi and Shadley had a bit of an accident at the beer tent as the two buggers tried to start a mosh pit there. Why, I don’t know. Ferdi tackled Shadley and both went flying on top of the wall tent; Ferdi landed on Shadley (those who know them both will now immediately go ouch! Poor Shadley – as Shadley is 5 times skinnier than Ferdi), who hit his head on a concrete slab. He was taken to the medic tent where he suffered a mild concussion. It was nothing serious, but they spent a great deal of time there, though Shadley swears to me that they still had a great time and I had nothing to worry about. So I believed him.

The lead singer from Kaiser Chiefs climbed the scaffolding too, but not as high as Jared, and just seemed rather lame in comparison, he even dropped his microphone. Still, a great performance from those boys, their tunes are really catchy.

It was then, after Kaizer Chiefs went off stage, that 5fm DJ, Elana Afrika, came on to read a apologetic statement from the organisers, that due to security issues, 30 Seconds to Mars would not be able to sign autographs – understandable, as me and 1000s of other girls would have probably mauled, raped and taken Mr Leto home to meet mommy and daddy. (and you can imagine my disappointment and envy when I heard that the damn Capetonians got to meet the band! Its just not fair!

Cokefest or Cockfest? PART ONE

2008-04-03T23:02:00.001-07:00

(this will be done in several parts - I have a lot to say!)

I have taken my time writing my next blog, mainly because other things have been occupying my mind, and over the past few weeks (I cant believe its already two weeks!) since the Cokefest 2008, I have been trying to get the general feel of everyone’s opinions on this event. The post-mortem has been one of mixed feelings, many complaining till they are blue in the face (something South Africans are well known for) but many, many more, like me, had the times of their lives. I have repeated this many times and Im going to say it again: “If you can’t rough it, then DON’T bother!” Don’t expect 5-start treatment at these events just because you think you are worth it (because you are not). It’s something that you don’t even get overseas. At the end of the day, it’s all about the music.

So here are my thoughts.

Ever since somewhere around the middle of last year, when I heard Korn was coming to South Africa, I had been eagerly waiting in anticipation for the MyCokeFest annual concert. When ticket lines opened in September, I was one of the first people to purchase those tickets, for myself and friends. We just couldn’t wait. R600 seemed worth it for Korn as well as Muse, Good Charlotte, Kaiser Chiefs and Chris Cornell. Quality bands, in my opinion. And I was quite beside myself when I heard later on during the year that 30 Seconds to Mars had been added to the line-up!!!! Oh, Jared Leto! Pure BLISS!

A week prior to the event, we counted down the days, the hours, the minutes, till 21 March 2008 finally arrived. I hadn’t slept much that whole week, especially on Thursday night as I sat on the floor in my room, listening to 30 Seconds to Mars on my Ipod and drawing the poster that would make me famous. But I was on such a high that I felt nothing could get me down. Nothing. The moment was almost upon us.

I woke up early on Friday morning, got my prized ticket ready and met everyone at McDonalds for breakfast – that turned out to be my biggest meal of the day as food became less and less important as the day progressed. This year we were quite a big group, 12 people (and met up with more at the Newmarket Racecourse where the Cokefest was being held): Ferdi, Weasel, Berny, Martin, Brydon, Michelle, Shadley, Tanya, Shawn, Basti, Berny’s friend Mark, and myself. After rushing everyone and waiting for the “born on African-time” (lol) Shawn, we got in 3 cars and went in convoy to Alberton.

Parking wasn’t really a problem as I had pre-booked it online (but it was a HUGE problem when we had to leave!). By 11am we made it to our destination; the racecourse was already packed with hoards of fans waiting to see their favourite bands. The number of people that attended varies from site to site and review to review, so I have taken the average – there were approximately 35 000 people there, surely much more than last year!

The whole place was covered with mud pits mixed with fragrant horseshit, but that didn’t get me down. In any case, I was well prepared with my ultra cool skull gumboots, perfect for treading in deep mud (shit). Drinks were first in order, which didn’t take too long to get, and then I managed to find a very short queue (thanks to a kind guy that pointed it out to me) to get my 2 very expensive but much coveted 30 Seconds to Mars (Jared on my chest, hee hee) and Cokefest t-shirts. I got a coke as well, since I wasn’t planning on getting hammered, but I was quite disappointed that I had to empty my bottle into a plastic cup before I entered the Golden Circle. I don’t get the point of that, since the plastic beer cups could be just as bad a weapon as a coke bottle. But who am I to judge?

Once settled inside the Golden Circle (or the VIP section as Jared Leto later called it), I expertly changed into my 30 Seconds t-shirt without flashing anyone – quite pointless as I later flashed almost half the crowd…(more on that later).

Before I knew it, the first of the SA bands, Lonehill Estate, came on stage, and having never heard them sing before, I was quite surprised at how catchy their tunes were and moved my hips and butt along to the beat. Caressa joined us, and I finally got to meet her. We ended up jolling together almost till the end.

After Lonehill Estate, Berny and I went on a quick run to get a round of drinks. We ended up missing Crash Car Burn as the queues were quite long by then. I didn’t mind at all, but Berny was disappointed that she missed out on them once again. Armed with a tray full of beers, Berny balanced it out of the tent, very expertly, while I guided her through the crowds, about to give birth to two coke bottles that were wedged inside my skirt, haha. Yes, I managed to sneak them in to the Golden Circle, unnoticed. Suck on that! On the way we met up with other friends, poor souls that had bought general admission tickets, but nevertheless they were having the time of their lives. ROCK ON!

Wonderboom was soon on stage, a band that I have always loved and stalked during my younger days, hahahaha, ok, I sound old now, don’t I? Knowing Cito well when he performs and standing there with the sun glaring in our faces, I knew what was coming and shouted far from Cito’s earshot “TAKE IT OFF!”. Eventually he listened and the shirt came off. What a bod! They finished off rocking to our all-time favourite, “Charlie” and had me jumping up and down, singing at the top of my voice. Ok, it was more like shouting, not really singing!

Last band was Prime Circle, a band I have grown tired of lately, but decided to move right to the front with Caressa, Berny and Tanya as I definitely wanted to be in front for the next band….!! DING DING DING!!!

Down with the Homophobes

2008-01-25T05:05:00.001-08:00

This title should actually read: RIP Heath, but as it now stands, the so-called Christian biggots are taking the limelight from this talented actor who sadly and tragically, died too soon. I was shocked and literally knocked off my socks when I got to work on Wednesday morning and was told by my colleague that Heath, one of my all-time favourite actors, was dead. I thought she was joking, so I had to confirm my fears with news24. And there it was, my hero died of an overdose of sleeping pills.

Forget how he died. Forget about the possibility that this was suicide or just a tragic accident. Forget, even, that he was such a diverse and talented actor that tackled each role with precision and passion. DONT forget that he played a gay man in Brokeman Mountain (for which he was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actor), because that is what the US Evangelical Church is doing. They plan to picket any memorial that this man deserves, purely on the account that he once played a pansy.

Big whoopeee. Get off your high horse you damn bunch of biggots. I reckon you are all closet gays yourself who are too afraid to come out. Dont get me wrong. I am a Christian too, but I am not a homophobe. Gay people have rights too, and for these idiots to be trashing a dead man's memory is disgusting and so un-christian like (for the lack of a better word). You people make me sick. And please, dont come quoting your Bible verses at me, it will fall on deaf ears because you interpret the Bible the way you want to, just to discriminate when it suits you.

So, a legend is dead. Yes, a legend. He didnt make as many memorable movies like the likes of Mel Gibson, Robert Redford, Al Pacino and co, but he could definitely have been up there with this elite team of actors, had he not been taken from this world before his time. He will be sorely missed. I cant believe how much this has affected me, I really enjoyed his films and I look forward now with even more anticipation to his portrayal of the Joker in the next Batman movie, The Dark Night, which is due later this year.

So long Heath. May you rest in peace.

Cazzfest 2008 - The Review

2008-01-24T02:55:00.001-08:00

I havent completely recovered from the party, which explains why I havent written about it as yet, but I thought, since I feel like Im dying, I better write this blog so I can finally die peacefully.

Even though I started to organise this event about 2 months ago, preparations went on full force last week, especially Friday when I took the day off to finalise the minor details. After a long, rainy shopping frenzy (which was depressing me to the extreme, this weather just wasnt getting any better) with Ingrid, we rushed to pick up Tink at the airport. Poor thing had to wait as Ferdi had to attend to some work at the last minute and then came head-to-head with the crazy Friday afternoon traffic. Tink didnt seem to mind as she settled in the Ocean Basket smoking room at the airport and waited for us.

I had a good giggle when we finally arrived and walked out the parking lot. Two well built, generally good-looking, super-tanned (too tanned actually) guys came out pushing their trolleys when one turned to the other and said, "You are such a SLUT!" and even did that naf hand movement. I burst out laughing and put my hand over my mouth before they could notice that I was laughing at them. Thats when I noticed just how gay they were as I watched them walk past us, hips in motion. My giggles turned to hysterical laughter when Ferdi said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the plane from Cape Town has landed". I was finished.

Once we finally got home with our new arrival from Cape Town, we had some of mommy's pizza then met Shadley, Mich, Shawn and Nick at Primi Junxion across the road from my house. Honestly I didnt want to do anything hectic that night as I wanted to be fresh as a daisy for Cazzfest. But since Nick was relinquishing his MC duties at Cazzfest and ditching me for the Queen of England (he had VIP tickets to see Elton John - pu-leeaaase! He could have sold them on eBay and bought me tons of drinks instead!) he wanted to make it up to me by celebrating that evening. I swore I was only going to drink one Jam Jar but that turned into 2 plus a tequila. I was quite giddy after that and all the crazy talk and almost gave in when Nick invited me to go to Manhattans. But I just couldnt. I had to say no. Yay for Cazz!

Next morning we dragged ourselves out of bed, went to Marks Park to decorate the hall and get out of there as soon as possible. Only it took longer than anticipated. Still, the hall looked fabulous - half heaven, half hell and I take my hats off to Ingrid and Tink who got the hall looking superb after all my ordering around, heheh. Owe you girls a lot. In the meantime, the heavyweights, Ferdi and Basti, did all the heavy lifting and setting up of the Hi-Fi. Weasel conveniently arrived late, just as we were finishing up.

Back home we ate and degreased in a hurry. Martin, Berny and Cailin arrived early to help with whatever still needed to be done. While I spent 3 hours at the hairdresser getting the do from hell, Cailin waited for me at home and the rest went to Marks Park to get the party started and help the sound guys set up.

Finally at 5 I was all done, gathered all my stuff and dashed with Cailin to the party. Everything was ready, the girls had put up all the movie posters that Shad got from work and the sound was kicking ass! (very impressive). I loved what the girls did with the boys' loo - they put up a "Back to Gaya" movie poster on the door, but removed the "A" at the end, heeehheee. I added my touch to it but putting a MEN sign right under the "Gay" Part. So "Back to Gay Men". How appropriate. No wonder the girls' toilet got the most action that night, most boys were afraid to enter the boys' loo.

I started to worry as 18h00 arrived and not many people were arriving. The stress was killing me. Perennial Darkness was the first band to arrive and I was so impressed with their outfits! They looked devilish. The rest of the bands arrived soon after, dressed for the occassion. My stress levels were peaking but after a few drinks and re-assuring words from Adam and Shadley, I was able to relax and have fun with the people that had actually bothered to pitch. And what a BASH IT WAS!!!!

It started and ended on a good note as Michelle introduced the first band, Acoustic Liquid, who kicked off with Berny's and my favourite song, The Pixies' "Where is my mind?". Immediately I was moving to the music and having a ball. After four great covers, Perennial Darkness came on (after being called on stage by Ferdi and Mich to down a Jagerbomb and SoCo - I SAID NO DOWN-DOWNS! I made my speech, no slurring this time) and blew my socks off. I was so impressed that I bought the lead singer a drink afterwards. Great band to watch! Thanks to Judd, their drummer, for organising!

Next came Torment, but not before we hogged the "stage" again and had another down-down and handed best dressed awards to Sonja and Bernd - y0u guys looked awesome. By then I was completely motherless, but I managed to still let my hair down and enjoy Torment's performance from beginning to end - and remember it! You guys were FANTASTIC! And the mosh pit was in full force, I even dared to enter it.

The rest is a bit of a blur as I engaged in several conversations with my guests, most of whom I met for the first time. To this day I still dont know why I had to get up on a chair and talk to the people. I saw the photos, nothing rings a bell - if anyone can shed some light on this, please give me a call. In the meantime, Fragmented Children was setting up. Unfortunately I missed some of their performance due to an "incident" in the parking lot but I was soon summoned and enjoyed their last few songs. You guys kick ass, cant wait to see you again!

When all that was done, we cleaned up and kicked everyone out before the clock struck 12 and Ferdi turned into a pumpkin again. I dont remember doing much cleaning, just showing my bloody knee and bandaged fingers to anyone that would pretend to care.

I was in bed, without getting sick (very weird) by 1h30 and instead of waking up with a hangover from hell (very weird indeed, considering all the down-downs, no hangover at all!), I had a stinging, burning pain in my knee that allowed little movement. With great difficulty I got dressed, limped carefully downstairs and had breakfast with everyone at McDs. We then went back to Marks Park to finish cleaning up. It was only 4 of us, Mich, Shad, Ferdi and me (Tink had been dropped off at a friend's house before she returned to Cape Town, sniff sniff), but luckily we managed to clear up in no time.

So, despite all the injuries and several no-shows, Cazzfest 2008 was a huge improvement from last year, and this only gives me hope for the next years to come! Bring on Cazzfest 2009!

Two more sleeps till the heavens collide!

2008-01-16T10:33:00.000-08:00

I cant believe what a great response I have received about Cazzfest, taking place this Saturday. It looks like it's going to be bigger and better than last year, which means that this can definitely be something I can now do on a regular basis, as stressful as the planning can be!

It started with Torment agreeing to play at my bash and I now have 3 more bands to add to the line-up. An extra band approached me as well, but I could not fit them in due to time constraints. The disadvantage of having at Marks Park is that I have to make sure we are done by midnight (before I turn into Cinderella again, and Ferdi into a pumpkin hahahahaha!). But do it anywhere else, and the costs will be astronomical for me once more. As always, Cazzfest puts a huge dent in my pockets, but its all worth it. The band line-up is as follows:

19h00 Acoustic Liquid (Charles and Wez from Torment's side project)
20h00 Perennial Darkness
21h00 Torment
22h00 Fragmented Children

I'm really excited about this line-up, there is something in there for everybody!

More exciting news was that I managed to convince (well, not too much convincing, they are such cool people) DJ Michelle and DJ Nick from UJfm to be my MCs for the evening! How cool is that? Im looking forward to see what they have in store for us!

What is really making me nervous is the ever-growing guestlist! I want as many people as possible to attend, to give the bands exposure, so the response is awesome. I just hope it all goes smoothly. I dont know a lot of the people that have RSVPd but I look forward to meeting and getting to know them all.

Preparations are almost complete thanks to my efficient task team, and we are set to go and dress up as our inner demons / angels. Im off from work tomorrow to finalise everything and meet my sidekick from Cape Town, Tink - I cant wait to see you again, babe!

So hold thumbs everything goes well and we rock our socks off! This year I'm warning you all - I WILL NOT DO ANY DOWN-DOWNS! I WANT TO REMEMBER THE WHOLE OF CAZZFEST 2008!!!!

Watch this space for the review on Monday (or a week later, depending on how long I will need to recover!). See you all on Saturday!

The Dawn of a New Era

2008-01-01T08:44:00.000-08:00

Ok, it just seems like dawn to me right now, hence the title. I woke up at the crack of dawn on my first day back at work for 2008, just so Weasel could be at work before 7, meaning I was probably one of the first people in the office buildings when I arrived here at 6:30 p.m. I feel like I have been hit by a freight train, and no, no alcohol was involved, just lack of sleep thanks to the damn mosquitoes that keep me awake at night.

The festive season came at went. Lots of merry making and cheering went on. We drank, we partied, we sang our hearts out. I am not going to go into detail, but it was one hell of a busy two weeks, that almost went by in a blur. I welcomed 2008 with a bang, just as I intended, armed with a 1.5 litre of water to avoid any hangovers (after the many I suffered the previous 10 000 parties). I endured a lot of teasing, but guess what? In the end I was one of the few that felt fresh and alive yesterday morning as I watched everyone else groan and moan in pain. Hahaha, touche!

As usual, I havent made any New Year's resolutions. Screw that. What's the point? I just want this year to be better than last year. I sure had my ups and downs, more downs than up that's for sure, so I intend to improve on a lot of things this year, but taking baby steps of course. No pressure. Just take it as it comes and hope for the best.

So here is to you all. Hope you have an awesome 2008! Bottoms up!

Here is a word from our sponsors, hee hee:

Cazzfest 2008 - Angels and Demons Collide

2007-12-11T03:58:00.000-08:00

Its almost that time of the year when I turn another year older, but who is counting?(shuttttuppp). Since the devil's mother was ironically born on Christmas Day (nicknamed all sort of horrible things like "Nightmare on Christmas Day" and "Carols by Candlelight), the bash is taking place almost a month after. Due to Cazzfest 2007's great success - who could forget, oh wait, that would be me - I have decided to make this an annual event and will host the next one on January 19, 2008.

This time around the planning is a whole lot easier since I know what went wrong (getting motherless drunk, spending a ridiculous amount of money) and what went right (wonderful group of people there, bands etc). And now Im introducing a theme party to go with it, first one being the appropriately named "Angels vs Demons" theme. Guess who I will be coming dressed up as? Dont even need to dress up, lol.

Since money is a bit tight, Im probably not going to have as many bands as last time. So far I have Torment confirmed and I am so excited that they will be playing at my party. I really dig their music. Im still waiting to hear from another band, but no matter what, its bound to be a HELL of a party!!!

Once again, its an open event so please invite all your friends. Just let me know before-hand approximately how many people are coming so I can calculate numbers for drinks and snacks. All details are in facebook, under Cazzfest 2008.

I am soooooo excited, I cant wait!!!!
State your legions, NOW!

Broken Bones

2007-12-09T10:36:00.000-08:00

Damn.

I struggled to get up this morning - first sign that last night was a damn good night. Rough, but damn good. Damn.

It was sort of a last minute decision to go to Zeplins in the end, because no one wanted to go except Ferdi, me and Shadley. But we thought, fuckit, it's The Narrow! We couldnt stay away. We would have gotten there early and paid R10 less for the entrance, but Ferdi decided to miss the turn-off and take us on a scenic route with pretty houses all lighted up with Christmas decorations. The bugger drove us around for over 40 minutes, having no clue where he was. We still got there early in terms of band starting times, but we still missed out on the cheaper entrance (less money for booze).

We first went to get some food in this dodgy aread. Its so dodgy that most fast food places were already closed. The boys wanted KFC, I wanted Steers since I dont eat chicken, but refused to go there on my own. Yes, I admit I was a big sissy. So I went with them to KFC and ordered me some chipsssss. Turns out this KFC was more dodgy than it looked, it had no chicken hamburgers or foldovers left, much to Ferdi's disappointment. So he had to settle for some chicken pieces and 10 chips (I counted them).

Once we were done we went to Zeplins, there was no queue so we didnt have to freeze for long outside and went straight to the bar. Shadley and I have now gotten into this habit of getting two Heinekens in one go (quite to my detriment as it all went straight to my head almost immediately). We went to the stage area and saw that the Straatligkinders were on stage. We had no desire to see them so we went back to the front bar and watched Mudvayne and NIN videos.

When we were sure that that band was done, we found a spot somewhere in the middle of the crowd and waited while Inersha set up. This time I phoned Berny while Inersha played so she could have a listen. I really need to get this chick back into the gig scene (mostly so I can watch Shad rip off Fred in front of her, loooool).

Five Heinekens later I was ready for The Narrow. I pushed my way right to the front and had the perfect spot right under Hanu's nose. I could even touch his feet, which made Shadley so jealous. Hahaha. At least I took a pic of his feet for him.

This night was better than the previous as the crowd went wild. I suffered more injuries this time as I was pushed against the stage everytime the mosh pit got crazy. I even received a punch to the head. Had I not used to stage as support, I probably would have gone down like a ton of bricks. Despite it all, my reflexes were on top form - some chick decided to use my jeans as support when she was about to fall (if only she knew how easy it is to get out of my jeans). She pushed down and as soon as I felt the tiniest cold breeze, I grabbed on for dear life and pushed them right back up. Phew! Disaster averted!

By the looks of it, Ferdi and Shad suffered more injuries too, and we left immediately after The Narrow ended, feeling worn out but highly satisfied with another good performance. Ferdi and I had the munchies again (I only had chips, remember? And Ferdi, well, he is fat) so we went to Hatfield and prayed something would be open. This time I managed to get my Steers. We sat there and chatted for a while and eventually went home. I couldnt stay awake, I was literally worn out.

Waking up this morning was a major task, I couldnt even lift my head, my neck hurt so much. But once that was done, I had to deal with a sore back that threatened to break into tiny little pieces. Had we not been invited to a braai at Shawn's house, I probably wouldnt have surfaced at all. But I made the effort. I really didnt want to drink but since Ferdi was playing barman, he spiked all my drinks and made me feel even worse. All I want to do now is pass out and die...Monday tomorrow, ugh. Its going to be a long week!

Best f"ing mosh pit ever

2007-12-08T05:35:00.001-08:00

Last night was epic. It sure ended with a bang! It was so good that we are going to see The Narrow again tonight at Zeplins, if all goes well. What a night it was!

It started off badly, as people started to cancel on me left, right and centre. I was so miff that I didnt even want to go in the end, especially since my partner in crime, Berny, couldnt make it either. How could I possible jol without her? But after a "fuckit, lets just have fun" sms from Shadley, I was geared for a good night.

I waited at home alone with a sick Rooney while Ferdi went to fetch Uli and Shad, and Weasel returned with mom from the hospital after visiting dad. We were running a bit late but arrived just in time to see 16Stitch setting up on stage. The place was packed, which is understandable considering the top class bands that were playing there that night.

We couldnt really find a good spot to watch the band, and the bars were packed with people wanting to get drinks. It looked like Tempos was short-staffed. After 2 songs I couldnt handle it anymore, so Shad and I went to the inner bar to try and get some drinks. It seemed like mission impossible. Only one barmaid who had no sense of direction as she served random people in no specific order. My mood was beginning to worsen.

Shadley had clear instructions for that evening: to keep me away from the male species that night, except from Andrew from 16Stitch (sigh, he's gorgeous as ever). And he did a superb job except for the five minutes that he left me alone at the bar while he went to the toilet. In those few minutes I had already made friends with the guys next to me and I flirted unashamedly. One guy insisted I smile and wanted to give me a lift over the counter so I could serve drinks behind the bar. Another just randomly started to talk to me. Conversation went something like this:

Random guy: "You look angry. What's wrong?"

Me: "I need a drink, that's what's wrong"

RG: "Looks like you need a hug. Want a hug?"

Pause...

Me: "No, I need a drink"

RG: "You sure?"

Me: (almost did an Andy from Little Britain impersonation). "Yeah, I'm sure".

Shame, he was very sweet and cute, but I was a girl on a mission that night, and that was to get my drinks! After 20 minutes I blew a fuse and swore at the barman, I think I scared him. And now with Ferdi at my side I finally got some service. I wasnt prepared to queue again so I ordered in bulk. Armed with drinks I went to watch what was left of 16Stitch's performance. One song. Dammit.

I caught up with Andrew afterwards and had a short chat with him. After all these years he still remembers me. What an awesome guy. It was very surprising that they didnt get to play at Woodstock. Thank goodness I didnt go. The Inersha boys arrived in time for their set after 16Stitch, said hello to them and got my spot ready in front of the stage. Kerran looked strange with his blonde hair, not sure if it suits him. Shadley laughed when I got a hug from Fred - Berny is going to be so jealous (dont worry Berns, I know he is your dibs).

My mood improved a whole deal as we rocked to Inersha. They had a couple of new songs that were kickass. Hope to see more of them. Fred threw a couple of Inersha DVDs at the crowd but I was always out of reach, so I approached him afterwards and scored me one too, heheh.

Finally the moment we had all been waiting for had arrived - The Narrow on stage at Tempos again. We had the perfect spot right in front, though we knew things would get deadly once the mosh pit got under way. I didnt care, it was the freaking Narrow forfreaksakes!!!!

Now, throughout the years I have bought all their CDs, but, and this is a big but, you havent truely experienced the magic that is the Narrow until you see them perform live. They have amazing stage presence and will have the crowd rocking and begging for more. Something that you just cant capture on a CD.

When they walked on stage the crowd went wild. Hanu looked like he had spent seven years in Tibet. That beard of his freaked me out (Ferdi wants one). His brother Emile (sigh), cute as ever too. Drummer Lias looked like Jesus Christ and Jow looked normal without his dreadlocks. Sure, they might have changed their appearance ages ago, but I hadnt seen them in over a year. Berny gave me instructions to stare at Deon (her dibs too) for her, so while I was singing along to their tunes, our eyes met, I pretended I was Berny and gave him a big smile, which was immediately returned. Snap, bang, I was Caz again and set my eyes on Emile again. Lol.

This was Shadley's first mosh pit and the goofy smile on his face meant that he was having a ball. Every now and then he would get swept into the throes of the pit, and would eventually surface, a bit roughened at the edges. Ferdi, of course, was in his element as everyone dropped like dominoes the minute he dived in there. It was funny to watch. I didnt escape unscathed either. As the mosh pit got bigger and bigger I got sucked in and was headbutted by a chick in front of me, and another hit me hard on the cheekbone. But it was all good, I just carried on as normal. I was proud that Uli remained in front with me for most of the performance. We will make a rocker out of her yet. Both Uli and Shad get the thumbs up.

They played all the favourites, like "Travellers", "Lonely Lonely" (damn we went wild), "Push up the Level", "The Banded" as well as the "newer" ones like "20 Questions" and "Shoot the DJ". The crowd didnt let up for one minute, the band had us enthralled the whole time. Before I knew it they finished their set and walked off the stage. But we didnt let them get away that easily and immediately chanted "WE WANT MORE". Ten seconds later they were back on stage (a bit rehearsed, if you ask me) and ended off with one of my personal favourites "Promised the World".

So it definitely ended on a high note after the disastrous day I had. Trembling and sweaty, I moved closer to the stage and called Emile over. I asked him for his guitar pick and immediately he placed it in my hands (such soft hands. Snap out of it, Caz!). I smiled at him and walked away, looking at my new precious. It was purple, my favourite colour. Sigh.

We left soon after that, since we were all exhausted and injured. Not that that is going to stop us from more torture tonight! PUSH UP THE LEVEL!!!

The end of an era?

2007-12-07T00:02:00.000-08:00

I think I have outgrown clubs, and by that I mean the trendy dance clubs filled with teeny-boppers dressed to impress, all glittery and sparkling. I certainly did that to death during the good ol' days of Bourbon Street and Hurricanes. Sigh, how time has flown. Just this week I took a trip down memory lane with some of my good mates from "those days". We used to get up to so much mischief and walked into the club as if we owned the place. One might think that we actually did, since we were there so often. I cant believe how much we have grown up since then, I realised just how much, last night.

After pre-cocktails with Ingrid and Sonja at the Blue Goose we followed Ferdi, Shadley and Michelle to Manhattans. I had only been there once before, quite recently actually and its amazing how drunk I had to have been that night to actually enjoy it. Last night was a different story. I made a promise to myself not to drink too much as I wanted to look alive for tonight's big event (The Narrow at Tempos!!!). So I took it slow.

When we arrived, Inki, Sonja and I went to the ladies bar and each had a complimentary Brutal Fruit Peach cocktail (very yummy). We couldnt find the others so we walked to the dancefloor and stayed there most of the night. But I just couldnt find the beat, mostly because I hate dance music. I can only tolerate so much. And being practically sober, I just couldnt enjoy it. Its sad, I know, but recent circumstances did not allow me to have a good time.

I did have one teeny tiny highlight that evening where my old self almost came to the fore. While I was looking around for the others, I saw a Collin Farrell look-alike in my midst. I would have followed him (he was that hot) but Im not a stalker...yet. Haha.

Sonja and Inki left just before 11 since they were going to Pretoria. We eventually found the others and after a drink, we went home. It felt good to be home early for a change, but I feel that last night was a bit of a downer. Sure, its always good to spend time with my friends, but Im not sure Manhattans is the place to go. Maybe its just me, and my crap mood of late, but if I have to go there again, it will have to involve more alcohol, lol.

But at least I have something to look forward to tonight. Not only am I seeing my sidekick Berny again (damn its been long), we are also going to what I think is going to be the gig of the year - The Narrow, 16Stitch, Inersha and more at Tempos. I havent seen the first two in over a year! Its crazy! Now THAT is my kind of scene, where I feel at home :)

Tempestual Times

2007-12-03T11:54:00.000-08:00

If one more person tells me to get a grip and be positive, Im going to push them from the 18th floor of my office building, and then maybe I will give them a toothy grin. A bit extreme? Hell no. Im stuck in a rut and I cant help feeling miserable. Let me get on with it and eventually I will be back to my old cheerful self. I hope.

Thinking I could get my licence after 10 days's worth of nail-biting driving lessons was a tall order, and damn, did I work hard to get there. I spent all my hard earned cash to get what I should have gotten 10 years ago. (10 years ago? Daaaamn). I know most people dont pass first time, but I strive to succeed in everything I do, first time. I tried, really hard. But my nerves got the better of me, even after overdosing on rescue remedy drops (boy did I feel drunk afterwards! lol). I excelled in the yard, getting all my parking right, but as soon as we went out on the road, I just lost control. I caught a red robot and couldnt stop in time - going over the white line is an immediate fail. Shame, the examiner really did want to pass me (yeah right) but there was no way he could do so since I committed a "traffic violation".

Oh well, so Im back to square one, and hope that my instructor can organise me another booking before the end of the year - before I lose hope and everything that I learnt. I went home feeling sorry for myself and almost kicked the dog, when I really should have been kicking myself. The rest of the week passed me by while I was in a trance, thinking of what could have been.

One might think its silly of me to be depressed over something so trivial, but with everything that's been going on lately, this is the cherry on top of the yukky sundae. I needed something to cheer me up, some bit of good news, anything! In fact, Im still waiting. Not even the sun is present to put me in a good mood.

I did manage to drown my sorrows temporarily on Friday night at Shadleys. Too quick though. Way too quick. Way too many drunken conversations. Waking up with a serious hangover the next day was not pretty - I was bed-ridden for the rest of the weekend, except for Saturday night when we went to Stones and Winstons Pub. But I wasnt myself and did not have fun. How boring.

I lay in bed watching the first season of Little Britain. Occassionally it got a few giggles for me (it is hilariously funny, really) but mostly I just sat and watched idly like the guy in the wheelchair who loves Monster Trucks. I hope season 2 and 3, which Im about to get at lunch today, will brighten the mood a tad more.

Now will someone please give me a dose of good news already!!!

Beware on the roads

2007-11-20T07:18:00.000-08:00

My dear boss has given me some time off so that I can for lessons to learn how to drive. Yes, I finally got my ducks in a row, got the number of a reputable instructor, and started with my lessons. Today was my second one, a bit disastrous at first, but it got better as we progressed. Im a very nervous driver, who fails to listen to instructions at the worst of times, and panics when there are other cars/cyclists/pedestrians on the road. Lol. But Im trying my best to set my fears aside and get this thing going. I dont have much time.

Im not going to say when my actual test is taking place, Im a bit superstitious about that. Only the ones that really need to know, know about it. Lets just say its soon, very soon, and thats why my instructor is practically throwing me in the deep end to get my up to speed, so to speak, in time for the painful, nerve-wrecking test.

For me, there is no other result than a pass. I will be bitterly disappointed if I fail, even though considering Im doing this in the nick of time, does allow me some leeway if it all goes wrong. It certainly wont be the end of the world. There will be other chances, Im sure, and most people I know have never passed on the first time. But I intend to, even if it kills my nerves!

F*ckiiiiitttttt

2007-11-19T04:33:00.000-08:00

After my interesting afternoon at my high school reunion, I went back home to exercise my best powers of persuasion to get everyone to go to Berny's boss' place for a laid back braai. So what if we were all feeling a bit ill after all the week's festivities, and the thought of alcohol made us all go a bit green. So what? So F*cking What? S.F.W. Fuckiiiiittttt.

We got the troops together and went in convoy to the braai. Even Uli came with, I was so happy. I was feeling very lethargic but looked forward to a nice relaxed evening, sitting by the bar, and talking sh*t. And it was here where Mich, Berny and I came up with this "f*ckit" concept. Something getting you down? F*ckit. Someone giving you grief? F*ckit. Wish the world would open up and swallow you whole? F*CKIIIITTT!!!

I sipped my SoCo very carefully, massaging my sides every five seconds or so, but for some reason I felt tipsy quite quickly. So maybe its all a state of mind. Maybe my friends' company makes me giddy! Hahaha. After having a fit of laughter when Berny played only 10 seconds of Nicholas Louw due to our evil grins (last monday we predicted she would play that CD and made a pact to throw her in the pool. Lucky for her, she was landlocked so we couldnt get to her), she switched to the cribs' "Mans needs". Mich had another fit of laughter, because I was convinced that in one part of the song, they said "Apollo Creed". I still dont know the words to the song, so I like to add in my own bits. What surprised me was that no one around the bar knew who Apollo Creed was!!!! Shock horror! Rocky ring a bell anyone??? They didnt even get my "Adrienne" joke. The company I keep these days!!! Hmph.

So anyway, looking to have some more fun, Michelle and I decided to teach Jesse the parrot to say "F*ckit". We repeated it about a 100 times and eventually the bloody bird said it, though it sounded more like "packet". It would say it, then giggle. I think I nearly died. Haha. Hope Berny doesnt get fired, hehehh.

We didnt really get up to much the rest of the evening, since Shadly was stone cold sober, and refused to fight with me (please, lets not ever do that again!). In fact, we were all pretty much sober and extremely tired, so we packed up and left just after midnight. Shadley swears he is on sabbatical from now until the end of the month and I want to believe him, but I just dont see it lasting too long. Its just the wrong time to do it. But one thing we should all try and do is to have fun, but less drinking. Its way too damaging. And it gets people to call the cops on us. Lol.

Lets wait and see how this week goes.

My 10 year high school reunion

2007-11-18T01:34:00.000-08:00

It pains me to say that out loud. It really gives me the willies! Yes, ladies and germs, yours truly attended her 10 year high school reunion yesterday. Brrrrrr. I can honestly say though, that it certainly doesnt feel like 10 years have passed at all!!! And all the girls that attended felt the same way. Lots has happened since we parted ways, but Im glad that I went and managed to catch up with some old friends and classmates.

After a short stint at Jeppe Prep, I went on to Jeppe High School for girls in Kensington, on a hot summer’s day in 1993. Lol, that sounds corny. Going to an all girls-school seemed a bit daunting at first for a shy but boy-crazy girl like me, but soon it proved to be the best choice I could have made. I was able to be myself, concentrate on my studies and make some of the best friends a girl could ever ask for. I still keep in contact with most of them, though sometimes it can be quite an effort as we go on with our separate lives!

Some of my best years were spent there, though at the time I didn’t seem to think so. All I wanted was to get out of there and get on with my life, and experience new and crazy adventures. I don’t miss the horrible green uniforms and black and white blazers (!!) but I do miss the carefree, fun-filled days spent with my friends at break and during class, getting up to all sorts of mischief and laughter. (Remember that time I got hold of the microphone during exams and sang “Only You” at break? Hahahaha, good times).

There are lot of stories I could tell, but I will leave that for some other time. As most of you know, I recently visited my best friend, Wendy, who lives in London. She was supposed to come down this week for the reunion, but due to unfortunate circumstances, was not able to make it. I would lie if I say that I wasn’t disappointed, because I really really was! We had a lot of plans for the week, but the last thing I wanted to do was make Wendy feel guilty as this was really beyond her control.

I considered not going to the reunion as I wasn’t up to facing most of these girls on my own. I hadn’t seen any of them since high school save for a few that attended some of my classes with me at varsity. In the end, literally at the very last minute, I sucked it in and went to our little reunion that was held at the Secret Garden in Fourways. Immediately I was welcomed with open arms and didn’t take long to break the ice and get back into the swing of things. The proceedings were opened by the Deputy-Head Girl who read some announcements, including a note from the Head Girl, who unfortunately couldn’t make it.

It was interesting to see that after a bit of mingling, everyone sat down with their picnic baskets in much the same sort of groups we had in high school. In one corner you had the “Blonde Brigade” (as Wendy once christened them. Never mind that she is blonde too! Haha), on another you had the intellectuals, on the other you had the Portuguese girls and on the other, you had, well us, the non-conformists, I guess you could call us. The wild, party girls? Hahaha. To be honest, I cant really give a name to our group. We were all unique, diverse, and I dare say, smart girls that complemented and supported each other through the tough and confusing high school years.

I was sad that my closest group of friends, as in Wendy, Kim, Tamsyn and Tanya, were not present, but at least I could catch up with other good friends that I hadn’t seen or spoken to all these years. I’m going to make an extra effort to remain in contact with them, and now with the wonders of facebook, its all the more easier to do so.

Its was also a bit daunting to see that while I’m still single and partying up a storm, others have been settled for years and are now proud mothers of one, two, three (!!) kids! Some even already have 9 year old kids! (pregnant during matric, you ask?) No, I didn’t get broody at all, in fact, I was quite scared, but it was interesting to watch these girls running after their kids, when it seemed that not so long ago, we were kids ourselves. Me, Im Peter Pan, dammit!

So where does that leave me now? Well, Im still going to carry on, living the life I have been living so far and have wanted to live so far. Im sure there are more adventures waiting for me out there, and Im ready for them, whatever’s out there. Like our school motto says “Forti Nihil Difficilius” – Nothing is too difficult for the Brave.

(ok, that was corny too).

Another epic party

2007-11-16T07:25:00.000-08:00

(Im sitting here in the dark, a huge storm underway and no electricity, hoping my battery power will last until I finish retelling this story. Thunder scares me).

Thursday night was time for another Shaylin/Shadley night, and you just know that means trouble. Try as we did, Shaylin and I could not convince the others to go to Manhattans last night. But even so, we all had a laid-back, yet killer hangover-inducing party that ended in the early hours of the morning. My long weekend started early yesterday afternoon. After the office party the previous night, I was feeling fragile and had absolutely no ability to do anything productive i.e. work. My whole day was spent on msn and unpacking boxes at my new desk. In our boredom, Shay and I formed "Team Manhattan" and we got so excited that we were going to convince the gang to go jolling. We certainly didnt get far, haha.

By 15hoo I gave up trying to sit at my desk looking busy and got a lift home with one of my colleagues. The weekend had started. After a one and a half hour power nap and a long bath, I felt brand new and ready to party. The venue for this damage was to be at the house Shadley is busy looking after at the moment. He was eager for us to get there so straight after dinner, Ferdi made me rush out so we could get the proceedings started. We picked up Shay on the way and got to Shadleys just after 8. Michelle and her friend Sabrina were already there.

Despite the huge amounts of booze readily available on the kitchen counter, I was miff with Ferdi for forgetting to bring the Southern Comfort. Sure, it was my job to remind him, but he hurried me so much that I barely had time think.

The party started out slow, and I almost fell asleep on the couch while everyone sat and chilled. But not to worry, I did not disappoint, after a few drinks I was ready to roll. Michelle was on form, treating us to a few shows from upstairs with her hilarious posh English accent. This girl should become a comedian.

I took a walk with the girls around the complex, since the boys were lounging on camping chairs outside the door. We didnt find anything interesting, we couldnt even find the pool, so we went back to join the boys. We spent the rest of the evening having deep chats, hilarious chats, and drunken chats. Shadley was messing around with his pool cue the whole night. You could see he was incredibly pissed, but that was fine since he was sleeping there, nothing to worry about. That boy was so full of nonsense that I disowned him once more. We must have told each other to "F off" hundreds of times. LOL, good times. Definitely a lot of love in this family.

I cant believe how quickly the night went by. Once you start having fun, time surely flies. I wasnt too worried about the time since I had Friday off, but the rest had to go to work (but some didnt even make it *cough* Shadley *cough*). By 4am I was tucked in bed though I struggled to fall asleep. It was scary to think that if I hadnt taken the day off, I would have had one hour before my alarm went off so I could get up and get ready to work.

Instead, I woke up around 10 or 11 with a pounding in my head, a sore back, a painful liver and 8 (yes, I counted 8) bruises on my right knee, only one on the left knee. After many, many attempts, I got up, brought my laptop to bed and logged on msn to see how damaged everyone else was. Shadley was AWOL, Shay was feeling weak but at work, and Mich was back at res (I hear she didnt even get to do her show, lol).

Eventually I went down to the kitchen to be met with two stern-looking faces belonging to my parents. I muttered a hello and tried to avoid their gazes. We ate lunch in silence but eventually they could hold out no longer and I got a mouthful from them that these weeknight hauntings are becoming a bad habit, and that I should have seen in what state Ferdi went to work this morning. If he gets fired, its all my fault....ugh, they had a point but I just didnt know what to say so I shrugged my shoulders and went back upstairs. I felt like a teenager all over again. I really need my own place and independence. As soon as I get my wheels, Im out of there - and thats when the drinking stops!

Tonight we were supposed to go to Manhattans, and as it turns out, since we are all a tad (ok, VERY) weak and fragile, this night will be spent indoors. Because tomorrow night, yes tomorrow night, it all begins again. Till then, folks!

That's Classified

2007-11-14T11:23:00.000-08:00

If you ask me what happened last night at our office party, all I can say is "That's classified". Dont ask, dont tell. It was a party of note, as most of our office bashes tend to be. It started at the Fashion TV Cafe, where we had the whole venue to ourselves, and well, the rest is history. Lol. What a party, what a night!!!

And Shadley, my boy, even though I partied like it was the end of the world last night, I am proud to say that I am alive and well this morning, so Rooney stays. No Stevie G for you! See ya all later!

Devil Worshipping - Another normal day in hell

2007-11-13T02:22:00.000-08:00

These impromptu drinking fests are becoming a bit of a ritual now. And this week is sure to top all the rest, as regular devil worshipping and sacrificing of male virgins is scheduled for the rest of the week. And Im not complaining. Yesterday I had the mother of all Black Mondays (blue didnt even come close) for reasons I dont care to disclose. Lets just say my world was fast caving in, and as the day progressed, the bad news kept on flowing. I felt like there was no point in carrying on living.

Until I got the phone call that saved my life, that is. My saviours, Michelle and Shadley, were on their way to my neck of the woods, and asked me if I was up for a drink or three (hell yeah! No hesitations there!). I was to meet them at the News Cafe across the road from my work in five minutes, so I immediately packed up my things and raced out of the office faster than you could say, "Pusstenarbeit!" hahaha.

However, looks like I was too eager and got there too fast. They were nowhere to be seen. I phoned Shadley, and there conversation went something like this:
Me: "Where the feck are you?"
Shad: "Im on my way. Be there now"
Me: "Hurry up!"
Shad: "Feeeeck"

I got a table and pretended to look important by reading a manual I got from the office. Time was awasting and they still hadnt arrived. Ferdi was also on his way, but it would take him a good 15 minutes to get there. After looking up, back and forth, to and fro, for several minutes, I saw the familiar, eager to have fun, faces of Mich and Shad. Ferdi followed soon.

My first cocktail of the day was Gigglejuice, since Giggling was much needed too. It was huge, it was purple, it was WONDERFUL. The fact that I remember all I had to drink that night, got nicely pissed and had no hangover the next day, made it the perfect evening. I also had a yummy yummy Watermelon Mojito (yes, I did the Spanish accent) with chilli (after experimenting with Tabasco sauce at Primi, Im for all things spiciy and hot, hmmmm), and a Faithful Bitch (hell yeah! Good idea, Mich. Shad, you better delete THAT photo!).

I think the boys had more to drink than we did. Ferdi looked like he was going to pass out so I had to make sure he drank some water before we left. Of course, the regular drunken phone calls took place, in no particular order, to the following victims: Mommy (boy was she pissed. Lol), Shaylin, Cailin (Shadley pretended to be a girl and asked to speak to Martin), Martin (bugger didnt answer his phone cause he was watching Greys Anatomy, hahahahha!), Berny, and um, I think that was all folks. Shadley did get hold of my phone and sent random, ugly sms's to several people, including Martin. Im still gonna get my revenge. Soon. Better sleep with one eye open, Shad!

Since we always require a souvenir from all the places we visit (and subsequently get banned from), Michelle managed to "get" a Peroni glass. The first one didnt fit into her bag, so she secured a smaller, more appropriately sized glass. Shadley, Im stealing it.

Being a Monday and the beginning of another gruesome week, with lots of partying in between, we decided to make it an early night and so left around 9. Ferdi worried me as he couldnt stick to a lane and kept on saying to me whenever I asked him to slow down, "Dont hate the player, hate the game". His new slogan. Luckily we made it home safe, in one piece, only to face the wrath of mommy cause we didnt let her know that she had to warm up our dinner. I was ravenous so I just shrugged and raided the fridge. Ferdi repeated his slogan, mommy burst out laughing, and all was well once more in the evil household.

Stay tuned for more sacrifices to come this week. Oh hell.

We are about to lose Rooney

2007-11-10T06:52:00.000-08:00

Stupidly I made a bet that might come back to bite me in the ass. It all started when I said to Shadley that I was in a mood for a party. That was asking for trouble already, Wednesday night’s party was still fresh in my mind and liver. We couldn’t make up our minds where to go, and eventually Michelle insisted we all go to Melville, despite Ferdi’s protests. On our way there, we had to stop in the middle of the road next to Cool Runnings as two cops stopped and chased after a stoned drug dealer trying to sell drugs to someone. He was shoved into the car by a manly, oh so sexy cop while the other took the potential buyer aside. We didn’t stick around to see the rest. What drama! Haha.

Melville turned out to be a disappointment. It was dead, nothing was happening there. Having lasted about two hours at Six and Transkei we finally decided to go to the Blue Goose near my place. We walked past Berny’s potplants and sat a table outside. Inside a Bon Jovi cover band was busy ruining some good songs. Next to us, what looked like a Batchelor’s party from Boksburg, was underway. So we were well placed.

We ordered our drinks (Purple Rain for me, of course!) and phoned random people in our drunken state: Basti was out celebrating his last day of high school with some friends and was coming to join us. He phoned back 5 minutes later to ask where the “Blue Hood” or “Blue Wood” was. Hahahaha, I hope he found it! Berny was AWOL and Vomit we woke up. He was sleeping cause he “had to work the next day”. Pffft, what a sissy. Eventually Berny phoned me back, just as pissed as we were, from Bundus. I hope she realised how much airtime she spent on that phone call. Hehheheh.I don’t think we phoned anyone else, if so, consider yourselves lucky!

As it always happens when we go to the Blue Goose, having a McDonalds right next door gave us the munchies so Mich and I went to get us all some Happy Meals with toys, of course. Shad and Mich played with their Ninja Turtles while Ferdi and I had some cool penguins from Surf’s Up. I still want a penguin as a pet! Christmas present, people! *cough* *cough*.

Basti finally realised that we were actually at the Blue Goose and not the Hood and got dropped off by some weird looking people. He looked pissed out of his mind, and so he should. Its not every day you finish high school (though Ferdi commented that Basti hasn’t realised yet that he is going back there next year, hehehheh).

Now here the Rooney story comes up. I was busy telling Shadley that next Wednesday I have this work party in Sandton, and since we are going to Manhattans again the next night, Im gonna be partying quite a bit but should still be able to survive it all. So Shadley took advantage of my drunken state and bet me that I wont be alive and well on Thursday. I bet him that I will. The stakes were simples, well, mine at least were: 2 jagerbombs. But he wanted something else: little Rooney!!! Before I could think about it and realise that he is not really mine to give, I said yes and shook on it. Ferdi looked at me in disbelief and almost cried out. Im going to have to put out all the stops to look fresh and alive on Thursday, or we kiss Rooney goodbye! You never know what Shadley could do to him. Gasp! He could rename him Steven Gerrard!!! Nooooooo!!!

After that faux-pas, we drank the last of our drinks and crawled home. Another night, another adventure. And here we go again tonight….*groan*

Meet Little Rooney

2007-11-10T05:50:00.001-08:00

I’m not referring to the sexy Man United player, but our little pup, Rooney, named after the former. Well, he is not so little anymore, he is growing bigger and bigger by the minute, much to my mother’s concern as our house is just not big enough – Ferdi takes up most of the space.

We got him about 3 months ago from Martin and Berny. He could then barely fit in the little shoe box in which he was transported in. He looked so tiny and helpless; so scared and surely missing his mommy. My icy black heart almost melted for him on the spot. Im not very fond of animals, but I fell in love almost instantly with Rooney.

At first I had to fight with the rest of the family as to what to name him. Even though he technically belongs to Ferdi, I insisted he be called Rooney (could have been worse, my second option was Hitler). Ferdi wanted to name him Theodore (I don’t know what the hell he was thinking, poor dog), Weasel wanted to call him “The Grim Reaper” and the old folks just called him “Pookey” (how gay). So after facing a huge identity crisis, the name Rooney stuck. I won.

He was quite popular a week after we got him, at the Spring Bazaar and he got passed around from one drunken lap to the next. Poor thing was very sick in the beginning but gathered strength once he began to eat properly. Now the little bugger eats everything in sight (no doubt adding to his rapid size), finishes his food in 5 seconds flat then proceeds to place himself under our table and demand to be fed our scraps. He is so spoilt that he wont take no for an answer.

Despite all the numerous toys we have gotten for him, he has now taken ownership of my favourite Eeyore slippers. I fought to keep them at first but he chewed them so much it was no fun sinking my feet into slippers full of drool and doggy smell. His favourite place to put all his things is under the table, of course, and you can still find my slippers there as well.

He has a keen eye for gardening too and spends numerous hours outside “attending” to the plants and occasionally using the flower beds as a mattress while the mister naps. They tend to make a good, crunchy snack too. To show his appreciation, he sometimes drags in a flower or two, roots and all, into the house and gives it to my mother. He knows he is in big trouble and runs to his “safe house” under the couch before he gets smacked. You’d think those innocent puppy eyes looking up at you would make my mother think twice about punishing him but she is not falling for it anymore. Lol.

We are trying not to make him into a sissy and Ferdi is considering sending him to boot camp and learn some discipline while maintaining some “machoness”. We don’t want him to turn out like scruffy! Lol. But there are several things that scare him still, like the penguin on a surfboard that I got for Ferdi with his Happy Meal. Once you put it on the floor and let it surf in circles, Rooney runs away and hides next to my mother. It scares him sh*tless, hahaha.

Best Rooney Story: last Saturday when terrorist Kayla arrived, she went for him immediately with open arms. Rooney got so scared he ran under the couch and hid behind the curtains…and peed himself. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I almost peed MYSELF from laughing so much!!!!

Blame it on Shadley or Frank whatshisface.

2007-11-07T10:02:00.000-08:00

Two hours sleep. Two *&@#$&* hours sleep, Shadley! Im feeling like an Ugly Betty right now. I blame you, my emancipated son. Last night's starring role goes to you, and best supporting act to Frank (Sinatra) whatshisface *Michelle would you be so kind as to spell his surname for me, thanks*. If I survive today, it will be a freaking miracle. Shadley day buggered me up a whole lot more than Shaylin day did. Not that I didnt have fun last night though. I just feel like I have been hit by a freight train and being left to rot on the tracks. So let me try recount last night's events.

After another hard day's work, my team mates and I went up to the 18th floor auditorium for a cocktail dinner we were hosting here for some execs from another division. Mingling was tiresome and engaging conversation was lacking. I drank my SoCos mostly in silence while I wished this dinner would come to an end. The menu was rather interesting, so interesting I didnt know how to eat the food placed in front of me. In between all this, I was busy planning my getaway with Ferdi and Shadley. At 19h30 sharp Ferdi was to pick me up from work, then pick up Shadley and go to play pool at Ballbreakers.

Before I knew it, Ferdi was here and the crazy Shadley night was in full force. We picked up Shadley, I told him he smelled like a woman and ducked when he tried to give me a backhand (kidding, but he did smell like a woman). Michelle and friends were already waiting for us, and after a few wrong turns (Shadley only knows how to go left. He doesnt even know where he lives) we got to Ballbreakers.

The trick with pool is that the more I drink, the better I get at this game, so it didnt take long for me to get in the groove (clearly, I drink like a fish. Wait, do fishes drink? Ah, next poll question!!). OK, Im getting sidetracked - I blame Shadley (TWO f'ing hours sleep!!!). I think I must have won about 2 games in the end, but we had tons of fun and a barrel of laughs - good for the belly.

Im not too sure what time we left, but the night was definitely not over. While Michelle dropped her friends off, we went to Shadleys and sat outside, in the rain and waited. Security drove past us several times, but didnt think we were suspicious enough (we should work on this). I passed out in the backseat for a bit, but when I realised that the boys had gone inside to get drinks and left me there all alone, I quickly sat up and forced myself to wake up. It was getting later and later and I had the munchies. But where do you find food at 1am???

Michelle soon got there and eventually we decided to go on a Great Trek to find food. It was like Mission Impossible (haha! flashback! Mich will get this one): McDs was closed (no shit, hey), even Fontanas. Eventually we found a garage and raided their food store. Thats when Frank showed up. Mich and I stayed in the car and locked the doors while Ferdi and Shad conversed with this weirdo. Apparently he needed money for petrol or something. After 5 minutes of my life gone, wasted, Ferdi gave him R20 so he could bugger off and we could finally get some food. Not that there was much. Damn Fat Ferdi got the last and only pie, I got some stale croissant. I vaguely recall Shad got some smarties and other random kak. Then off we went back to Shads, said our goodbyes and buggered off home.

Somewhere along the line mommy had phoned wanting to know when her babies were coming home. Poor old woman. I think we called Shaylin too but I just cant remember now. Oh no, wait, that was Shadley. I was just shouting obscenities in the background.

Ferdi and I got home at 3am. 3am! That meant I had less than 2 hours of shut-eye left and guaranteed grumpiness. It felt like as soon as I closed my eyes, my alarm went off. I dont know how I did it, but I got up immediately, forced myself to throw up and lay in the bath for eternity. I feel green, my hands are shaking and I am not sure if I will live to see tomorrow. Its one of those ugly days, when I feel revolting and dont want to be seen by human-kind. Yet here I am, ready for another hard day's work. Shadley, my boy, you are a legend. Despite all the torture Im facing today, last night was hilarious, and would gladly do it again. The pain is worth it.

Just call me Bettyyyyy. Wee-o wee-o wee-o wee-o wee-o wee-o wee-o.

The horrors of online dating

2007-11-06T10:14:00.000-08:00

Everytime I hear the words "online dating", even "blind date" I run the other way screaming. If that is what it takes these days to meet people, then I'm sorry, I am not interested. I rather meet someone the conventional way, and then make my mind up as to whether they are dating material. Of course, there are exceptions. I have met a lot of people, with whom I first chatted online, and then ended up either becoming good friends with them or even dating them. But the difference here lies in the fact that the initial intention was to get to know the person, without there been any pressures to get "romantic". Or at least, that's the way I interpret it. You just never know what the other person is thinking on the other side of the screen, lol.

About a month ago, while I busy tackling another mountain of work and concentrating very very hard, my dearest colleagues brought to my attention an email that had been sent by our events co-ordinator about an upcoming Christmas Ball, where she had booked 3 tables for anyone interested in going. It was a formal event and no partners were allowed. In fact, they were looking for single people, who wanted to meet other single, "desperate, lonely" people at work. I immediately cringed at the thought (Im not desperate OR lonely) and ignored what my colleagues were telling me.

They were relentless, and insisted I go, after all, it was for a good cause. Eventually I got tired of them bugging me and just to get them off my back so I could return to my work, I gave in and replied to the email saying "what the hell, its for a good cause, put my name on the list". And that was that, I gave it no further thought.

We didnt receive any further information until last week, where I got to see the guest list. I didnt know 90% of the people that were going, but I decided this would be a perfect time to get to know other people at the bank since Im still quite new here. And I saw that one of my friends was also going so I wouldnt feel so alone and SCARED! (really the thought of going to this ball scared the poopypants out of me). I was just quite sceptical about the whole thing because we didnt receive much info about this ball. All I knew was the date, time and venue. Not much else. Googling didnt help. There was only one site that could have had some more insight but as luck would have it, it was BLOCKED (warning bells). What awaited me, really?

Saturday came and I already started to panic, and break out in a sweat. I really didnt want to go to this thing, I just had a bad feeling about it. I went looking for some dresses (always leave things to the last minute) and came home with 3 different black ones (to match my sombre mood) so I could choose in the comfort of my own bedroom. As time drew near, I procrastinated, and was looking for any excuse not to go. So I decided to go on the internet and check out that blocked site. And am I glad that I did!!!!!

Turns out that the event was being hosted by an online dating site (no. 1 reason not to go, Im so against these sites!) for single people between the ages of 30 to 55! (no. 2 reason: Im 27! and no. 3: Gross!). That just about convinced me not to go but I didnt want to leave my friend all alone to face all these weirdos! I wish I had had her cellphone so I could warn her. We had totally the wrong idea about this Ball!

I didnt know what to do, I was in two minds about it. I didnt want to go there and give the impression that I was "single, desperate and lonely" (as I am not!) but I also didnt want to leave my friend all alone. It was time to make a decision, and fast!

Jennifer, Cesar and little terrorist Kayla then arrived at my place for a braai. I hadnt seen them in ages, and wanted to spend some time with them. While I was blowdrying my hair upstairs in my room, Jennifer and Kayla were looking at my London trip photo albums while I told Jennifer about my dilemma. She said I should just go, but I wasnt convinced. The arrival of two surprise visitors did - to the contrary!

As I was finishing the gruesome task of dealing with my hair, I felt a "presence" outside my bedroom door. I didnt even look up, thinking it was Ferdi returning from Randfontein. I didnt think he would return so quickly and blurted "what the hell are you doing here?" A few seconds later, still feeling that presence, I looked up and gave a little scream. There was Shadley standing at my door and right next to him was Michelle! What a pleasant surprise! Shadley has a habit of sneaking up on me when Im in my room. A bit creepy, you might think, but we are family, right? lol

So again I shared my dilemma. Shad helped me come up with a few excuses not to go and so I sms'd the event organiser with apologies that I couldnt make it. The fact that the gang were planning to watch Resident Evil at the drive-in definitely convinced me not to go to this thing! Who can say no to "poisoned" slush puppies? Hahahaha.

I put all those dresses back in the shopping bags, changed into something more comfortable and Caz-like, and went downstairs and drank SEVERAL SoCos with Mich while we waited for Berny and Martin to arrive. It felt like I hadnt seen Berny in ages so that was another reason for staying!!! The night turned out to be awesome and I had no regrets. Not that I ever do, why waste time on regrets?

My decision turned out to be one of the best I have ever made. My poor friend IM'd me frantically on Monday morning asking me what had happened to me on Sat and that we must meet for coffee so she could tell me about the horrors of this evening. Apparently this do was so badly organised and so dodgy that even our events co-ordinator was not impressed. Our people made the most of it at least and tried to stick together, but she said "outsiders" were rather creepy and the minute there was an empty chair next to you one of them would hurry up, sit next to you and just STARE. If that is not creepy, I dont know what it.

Luckily she got rescued by her complex security guard informing her that her house alarm had gone off, so she literally raced home. Had I been there, she probably would have had more fun but she didnt blame me for not going. Poor girl.

Now I can breathe a huge sigh of relief. Give me a party anytime, but keep the weirdos away! LOL.

Back from the dead

2007-11-05T06:09:00.000-08:00

Or the undead, since you cant really kill me, so many have tried and failed, sigh. Anyway, contrary to popular belief, Im not really dead, Im still here, just keeping a low profile for the time being. I briefly considered closing this blog since time is so precious lately, but since I enjoy writing about mundane stuff, I will keep it going, just not as regularly as I used to. I cant even remember the last time I updated it. Hang on a few secs while I check. Are you hanging? Cool.

Right! August 30!!! Jeepers, ok, it has been a while, and lots has happened since there but I wont bother to relate it all, since most of you should know what the Queen of Darkness has been up to lately: working hard, (very hard), travelling and running the underground. The highlight of the past few months has of course been my trip to London, which was long overdue. My dearest best friend, Wendy, moved there with her husband several years ago, and after much contemplating, I finally got my ass into gear and visited the madam.

And what a ball we had! I made the long trek via Dubai (where I spent 2 hours there and back, shopping like any crazy chick would, even during witching hour) and after spending 2 long hours queuing in immigration at Heathrow, my mate and I were re-united. She spent the first few days showing me around and teaching me about the wonders of the tube, which I mastered in no time when I had to travel around on my own while she went back to work.

I saw everything, and almost bought entire London (boy, did I cry when I came back home and saw my credit card bills). Richard Branson got a whole lot richer as I went mad at the Virgin Megastore by Piccadilly Circus. And even more so as I decided to make a second sneaky trip there a few days later!!!

During the two weekends that I was there, Wendy and I did 2 day tours on the Saturdays. First one we went to Windsor Castle, Bath (pretty town) and Stonehenge (my personal favourite), guided by the bossy Ginger Spice aka Military Spice. The other Saturday, we were very very lucky to go to: PARIS!!! I was so excited! It was a very rushed day, and by the end, Wendz and I were ready to kill each other as hunger and fatigue made us grumpy. We should have spent a night there but at least we got to see the main things: Da Vinci Code tour at the Louvre, bus tour through Paris, climb the top of the Eiffel tower (short-lived since Wendy is such a sissy, she was convinced the tower was swaying! Hahahhaha) and shopping on Champs Elysees towards the Arc de Triomphe.

I would gladly go back, it was an experience that I will always treasure. I even considered going to London to work for a few years, but the move there seems so tiresome. It certainly requires a lot of effort on my part. Plus the weather sucks. There is nothing better than SA weather! (though lately one might disagree, methinks I brought the London weather with me).

Ok, enough banter for today. Duty calls!

Oh, I was going to add some pics, but that also requires effort. Save me some trouble and check facebook!

Spring Bazaar

2007-08-30T05:05:00.000-07:00

Saturday is our annual Spring Bazaar taking place in our church grounds, with the main attraction being the beer tent, showing live rugby. Yes, in our church grounds. I cannot wait. Lots to celebrate! Hope to see you all there!

Entrance is R2 and there are raffles with great prizes to be won!

Chaotic Times

2007-08-29T05:19:00.000-07:00

After receiving a notice in my inbox earlier today that Tink commented on my last blog I looked back in horror and realised that I hadnt written a think since the 8th of August! 8th of August!! WTF? What does it say on the calendar today? Hmmmm 29th of August, that is more than 20 days after my last post. So what happened? Its been really crazy, let me tell you, in that a huge series of events have led me to shy away from the e-world, only to return fully this very morning, precisely at 10am.

A few days after my somewhat drunken convo with my boss at the Sun City Conference, where I told him how bored I was etc, I found myself bombarded with work, mostly from him and his two-I.C., plus my 10 other team-mates. My office looked like a tornado hit it once, twice and then one more time, for good measure, as I tried to make sense of what was plotting, and what needed to be done urgently. Dont get me wrong, I wasnt really complaining. I like to be kept busy, especially if its interesting work, like one of the projects I was busy with for my boss where I had to investigate the construction industry. But there were times that I wanted to pull my hair out when I couldnt seem to find the light at the end of the tunnel.

With perfect timing, my youngest brother, Ferdi, finally got a job at a small law firm, and began about 3 weeks ago, round about the same time that my workload increased. This meant that our working hours would now change as he only had to be in the office at 8, but would work till later. So instead of coming into the office early and leaving early like I have been used to, I now get here just before 8, and leave well after 5. This suited me, since I could work late, alone most of the time, and in peace. I only fell off the wagon once, when after all the frustrations, I decided to put the work aside for one afternoon and joined a few other late owls at the News Cafe across the road for a few drinks. It was what the doctor ordered.

So in addition to all that, I had to get my ducks in a row as our church's annual Spring Festival draws near (keep an eye out for details tomorrow, or search for "Spring Bazaar" on facebook). As I am the chairperson of the organising committee, I had to make sure that everything is going ahead smoothly. Again, I felt like I was having a nervous breakdown, but thanks to a few helping hands, especially Inki's very capable ones, I was assisted tremendously and it looks like this Saturday is going to be a roaring success.

Last but not least, I had to study for my learner's licence. Not wanting to repeat last year's tragic mistake of studying the day before after jolling too much, this time I hit the books seriously, in advance, and learnt everything as best I could. I wrote it early this morning in Sandton, and only did I pass, I PASSED WITH FULL MARKS! I was so chuffed. So now that leaves me to phone the call centre again and be put on the waiting list for my drivers. In fact, I am phoning them as soon as Im done typing this.

So all this didnt leave me much time for anything else really. I havent been jolling too much and even started a detox diet last week in efforts to get healthy before summer. And I joined the gym again! All this has really worn me out but I manage to keep my chin up nonetheless. In fact, I have an awesome holiday to look forward to in a few weeks time! Not to mention some celebrating this weekend!

So I am back! Lets hope I stick around longer this time!

Cold turkey anyone?

2007-08-08T05:29:00.000-07:00

My hands are literally shaking right now. I can barely type. The reason is simple, I have done the unthinkable. The unspeakable. The impossible. This morning, all of a sudden I got this inspiration to clean out my purse, and cut out several of my credit and store cards! For years, some of my self-appointed financial advisors have told me, in no uncertain terms, that the only way to get me out of this debt-rut, was to cut all those cards and throw them away! As if! How dare they!!???

But enough is enough. Im not exactly bankrupt or in any danger whatsoever (yet) but Im tired of having to say goodbye to 75% of my salary during payday and then struggling to make the last few extra bucks stretch until the next payday. Its just not on anymore. I have devised a step-by-step plan on slowly getting rid of most of my short-term debt and then moving on from there. So Im not exactly going cold turkey just yet, that would be suicide. Like Tink said to me earlier today, that might just lead to a huge rebound shopping spree. No kidding! Im terrible at impulse shopping! Thats one thing I really hate about being female. Ugh.

My worst temptation right now are CDs, DVDs, and books. I spend thousands each year on them. At least I read the books and listen to the CDs until I completely kill the songs. But the DVDs? Im lucky if I get to see even one of them! There is a huge box sitting in my lounge full of DVDs that are gathering dust and laughing at themselves because I havent even bothered to open the boxes. Just yesterday I received a new shipment from Kalahari, with 5 new DVDs including the yummy, delectable, 300 Spartan men clad in almost nothing. Hmmmm, now that is one DVD I have to watch again and again...

Ok...got distracted there. So, anyway, debt, yes, right, debt. Im getting rid of it. Next year I will be conducting major expenses like buying a new car, possibly move out of the house for once and for all, and maybe take those photography lessons I crave. So now is a good time as any to get rid of that horrible plastic in my purse. Whether I will stick to it and not reapply for new cards, remains to be seen!

Party Weekend

2007-08-06T02:45:00.000-07:00

This weekend I promised myself I would take it easy, but who can really do that when you are out having fun with crazy people? At least, I can assure myself that I had no blackouts or embarrasing cringe moments, phew! Friday night we got together with several of our UJfm chat room buddies, like Shadley and Shaylin. Even Michelle, the coolest DJ, joined us for a while. And what a good laugh it turned out to be.

After almost hitting a concrete wall due to Shadley (my son, the devil)'s beautiful directions, we got to Pantelis (spelling?) in Fourways in one piece. I gave a boy a piece of my mind for forgetting to mention an extra robot, but all was soon forgotten and the partying began. Berny, Cailin and Martin arrived just a few minutes after us, with concrete wall stories of their own (they followed the same directions).

I insisted I did not want to have any Jagerbombs that evening, that tequila would sufficem, but in the end my boy had the final ruling and orderered a round. I tried to do the Jager poem and got as far as "Das ist des Jagers Ehrenschild" then whatever whatever whatever, Prost! Wackhead Simpson was sitting a few tables behind us, and was having what looked to be a first date, hehehh. We should have given a taste of his own prank medicine, but we are not that cruel. Most of the time...

When it was time for us to leave, the bill was already astronomical. Shadley and co stayed until 5am, at which time he had to be carried home. Thats my boy!

Before I knew it, it was time to get up and get ready for the next big party. I was still in the shower, cursing, when Berny was dropped off at my place, just after 9am. After much rushing about, I was ready at 11 and off we went with Ferdi and the folks to Pretoria. No, my mommy and daddy did not party with us (though who says they cant, for their age, they can still have a good time). We dropped them off at a residence where they were catering that day and then we went to the Arcadia Church for their annual bazaar.

Inki and Rudi were late, in search of a damn ATM that worked, so in the meantime we got ourselves some beer, settled down and enjoyed the warm sun, which soon started to burn. Eventually they arrived and we took part in some of the games, like the fishing for the bottle, darts, shooting (wish Ferdi could have been the target, heheheh), golf etc. I must admit that the day dragged and I was starting to get bored. I chatted to some old friends, sat, and basically did nothing most of the time. Till we started to negotiate for the leftover booze....

After a few Jacks and cokes (and a few Jagers), the conversation got louder, Inki got rowdier and well, we wanted the leftover Brutal fruits to take to Hatfield for the after party. Inki's maths wasnt so good (the barman was none the wiser, haha) but luckily I managed to do some shrewd calcualtions that allowed us to get 18 bottles at cost price. So while the final auctions and cleaning up were taking place, we sat by the Jack Daniels tent, with our complimentary Jack Daniels bags and coasters and giggled like teenagers. Thats when things started to get fun and well, crazy! I have never seen Inki this drunk before, she was such a laugh.

As is tradition, the more we drink the more hungry we get. So where do you go when hunger kicks in? McDonalds, of course! Since we were going to Hatfield anyway, we went to the McDs across the road and I got the girls each a Happy Meal with the cutest little beach ball! I would like to apologise now to all the random people that got hit with those balls. Hehehheh.

We devoured our meal like wolves then got a table at Herr Gunthers. I had more Brutal Fruits than I cared for. Suddenly the tables seemed like a good spot to dance. Most of us took their turn, even Ferdi (shudder) who gave us a little striptease that none of us wanted or paid to see.

After so much dancing, twirling and singing, it was time to go. :( Time really flew, but it was so much fun!

Hold thumbs

2007-08-02T05:53:00.000-07:00

I FINALLY GOT A BOOKING FOR MY LEARNERS' LICENCE! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I better not cock this up now. I have to have to have to have to pass this! Its now or never. I just dont think I will have the patience to do this one more time. After much agonising with the Call Centre and that damn enatis, I was put on the Sandton waiting list. On Monday night, I got an sms from them saying that a booking was available for me and must phone the call centre within 48 hours. And so I did, and stood in the queues for 2 hours this morning to pay for the booking. I write the test on the 29th of August. Any help with my studying will be greatly appreciated!!!

In other news...Im going to London in September for 2 weeks! WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!

The Conference at Sun City

2007-07-31T02:24:00.000-07:00

After counting all the sleeps till the conference, the day had finally arrived - though it didnt seem like it. It was still pitch dark when I got up. 5am, ugh. I had only had about 4 hours sleep, having almost frozen to death at the drive-in the previous night. But nothing could damper my mood. This was my first time at the annual conference for the bank and from what I had heard from previous attendees, this was a must for all who love to party and get to know people from the other divisions.

So I dragged my sorry ass to the bath and finished packing before my two colleagues arrived at my house. They arrived early, so I had to rush out, and in my madness, I forgot to pack enough jerseys (hence me sick with flu right now). After 2 hours on the road, we got there just after 8:30am and went for breakfast at Wimpy since the conference only started at 10.

When we were done we had more coffee and pastries in the ballroom next to the Superbowl (well, the boys did, the thought of more food made me nauseous) and then collected our name tags outside the Superbowl. By the time we entered most of the tables at the back were taken so we had to settle for the ones right in front (so no chance of me catching a few zzzz's!).

The bank's choir kicked off the proceedings with their rendition of "You're the Voice". It was so moving I was almost in tears, thank goodness it was dark. The MC was our economist who kept us highly entertained with his witty remarks. Its customary for all newbies to stand up and be noticed, so yours truly had to stand up together with roughly 100 more people. Nice to know that I wasnt alone. Then each division got their chance on stage to present their achievements.

I was literally blown away by the talents that some of our colleagues possess. Most divisions, instead of doing a live performance on stage, filmed a short video about their business which was shown on the big screens. Some did both, which also really worked well. It made me regret not having taken part in these performances when asked for volunteers about a month ago. Note to self: take part next year! Some of the most memorable shows were: a radio show with Darren "Wackhead Simpson" (yes, we get to hire actors and celebrities too), a talk show with Johan van der Walt (hilarious! I almost pissed myself laughing!), our division did a "Mythbusters" episode (really impressive, one of our bosses looked almost like one of them!) and the best one - a short skit of the Rocky Horror Picture Show (kinky, sexy, very very professional!).

And there were lots more, plus with several awards being given out to the dealmakers of the year, this took us to almost 18:00. What a long day! Of course, we had two breaks in between, one for lunch and one for tea, during which we caught up with old friends, posed for pics, ate, got lozenges (for me, flu was already on the way), sorted out roomates since word on the street was that I was sleeping alone in the palace (not to worry, I managed to avoid roomates, heheheh).

As soon as it was over, I raced to the palace bus stop since it was too far to walk there. It seemed like forever, but eventually the bus arrived. The drive there seemed just as long, I think the driver took us on a tour of the whole of Sun City. By the time we got to the palace it was pitch dark. We all checked in and went to our respective rooms. I felt like I was living in a dream. The palace is really gorgeous, and if I had had more time, I would have walked around a bit more. As I got to my room, the maid was still busy there so I waited outside and made a couple of phone calls. I was definitely not sharing with anyone, since my bed was a huge king-size bed, unless, of course, he was male and gorgeous, hahaha!

I only had about 2 hours to get ready so I rushed and sulked a bit cause I couldnt really enjoy the room for a bit longer. A nap before the party would have been pure bliss. Just before 8, I ran out the room and prayed that there was still a bus there to take me back to the Superbowl. Just as I got outside, a very full bus was leaving. Damn. Luckily I wasnt the only one left behind , some of my colleagues were late too, and we were promised that another bus would come. And sure enough, not even 5 minutes later another bus drove up and took us to our destination.

I dont know why I rushed, because we were made to wait over 20 minutes outside the Superbowl while they got everything ready inside. I was miffed but soon got over it as we were led inside and sat at our respective tables. Drinking soon got under way, but I made damn sure not to get too pissed so as not to make my name gat at this prestigious event. Unfortunately, after half a bottle of wine, I had a heart to heart with my boss, and told him that I feel neglected by him. LOL! Of course, he thinks its funny, and is still teasing me about it. He will never forget.

After dinner and a few speeches, we were entertained by one of our opera singers (lots of talent here in the bank!) and then the highlight of the evening: Mr Johnny Clegg! I was really impressed by his performance. Just about every person, black, white, Indian, coloured, female, male, boss, CEO, plebs, was on the dancefloor jamming to the music. Amazing culture!

Then it was the DJ's turn. Since I wasnt too drunk to not care what music was being played, I danced to a few songs, showed my moves then mingled with my colleagues and accompanied them for several smoke breaks. I wish I had taken my jacket when I was outside, because Im really paying dearly for it now!

Eventually I decided that I wanted to enjoy the benefit of staying at the palace (I doubt I will get another chance anytime soon) so I sneaked out without anyone noticing and caught a ride to the palace. After a calming bath, I lay on the luxurious bed and fell asleep. Only to wake up a few minutes later shivering like crazy. I had forgotten to take out the duvet from the wardrobe. But I couldnt force myself to get out of bed. I'd rather just lie there and freeze - another dumbass reason for me being sick today.

Before I knew it my alarm went off and so it was time to get ready to leave. I showered, packed and raced to breakfast. Unfortunately, after a heavy night, breakfast is far from my mind so I ate as much as I could force myself to eat. I didnt have much time to waffle so after a few bites I got my stuff from my room, checked out and was picked up by my "drivers". We left at 9am as scheduled and got home just after 11. I was tired, damn tired. I must have gotten a total of 5 hours sleep that whole weekend, but I wasnt able to catch up on some sleep that Sunday.

After a braai at my aunts, Weasel and I caught up with Ferdi, Shawn and Basti in Sandton to see the Renault F1 cars. Wow, those cars can really make a noise! Sandton was freezing, full of people and it was uncomfortable to stand against a fence, but it was all worth it to see these cars speed on our roads. And what a hot stuk Giancarlo Fisichella is!! Yum!!!

So I was buggered, really buggered yesterday morning, and things are not looking up today either. But it was all really really worth it. I cant wait for the conference next year!

Quick round-up of the rest of my holidays

2007-07-30T04:02:00.001-07:00

Before I get into reviewing one of the best weekends I had, let me give you a quick summary of the rest of the events that took place while I was on leave. After the two back-to-back Tempos gigs, I woke up on Sunday feeling groggy from all the late nights. But I had to get up eventually to celebrate my uncle's birthday next door. Nothing eventful, just lunch with the family and close friends. I ducked sooner than later cause chatting with the old folk drives me dilly. That evening I convinced Ferdi to drive me to the airport to see my bestest friend Wendy who was here for the weekend. Unfortunately it was a short trip and she was on her way back to London but it was nice to catch up with her after all these years. Last time I saw her was at her wedding about 4 years ago! And looks like we will be seeing each other again very soon...more on that later.

My week was very laid-back, as was intended. Waking up late and not having to bother even to get dressed was pure bliss. I spent my days watching movies, reading books and occassionally logging on the internet world to see whats cracking (I just cant get away). The highlight was going to the movies with Ferdi to see the new Harry Potter film - Im such an addict! I was hardly disappointed though it would have been nice if they could have included more of the book - though its not always possible. I waited in antici...pation for the final book to arrive as well.

Then weekend was here quicker than ever, and time to party. Friday night we celebrated Sonja's 21st birthday (again) and decided to have one of our wild Girls' Night Out at our local hangout, the Blue Goose. It was still too cold to sit outside so we went in and got a good table in front of the band - yes, they had a band. Brace yourselves. After ordering a round of Purple Rains (which turned out to be blue because they ran out of purple colouring) the giggling and cackling began. The band started soon after and sang all the good oldies. Confidence kicked in and so Berny and I started to dance. Ingrid, Sonja and Uli took turns to join us. Some even indulged in some sokkie and twists and turns with some strange looking men. Need I say who? Hahaha
It was so much fun that we didnt notice the time. There was so much loving going round that table, cocktails, shooters, laughter, a really good time was had by all. Sonja was even asked to come up and down her drink while we sang happy birthday to her. It was sad to leave but most of us need our beauty sleep. I was promised by the band that next time I can sing "I touch myself" with them, hehehehhh.

But we didnt go home just yet. Sonja and Berny decided to go with me to Exclusive Books at Cresta so I could get my pre-ordered Harry Potter book. One look at the hellishly long queue discouraged me completely. Im a fanatic, but Im not crazy. So we went home and I got the book at a more appropriate time, like 2 that afternoon!

Saturday I got a lift from Wesley from Torment to go see them and other kickass bands like Falling Short, Inersha, Chromium, Hikatori, Namuh and many more at Foundry Fly Lounge in Pretoria. The event was called The Rock Opera which was organised by Bianca as well as Reinard from Falling Short. I was chuffed that they made me a VIP guest but all those perks had its disadvantages - never give me free booze if you want me to stay alive and well enough to see the bands. But from what I did get to watch was damn fan-rocking-tastic. Torment - you guys will go places!!!
After waking up with a serious hangover on Sunday and trying to recover and remember...before I knew it I was back at work. Not as well-rested as I would have wanted to, but at least I got some much needed R&R in between all the partying. Now Im planning my next holiday!

Im off to Sun City tomorrow

2007-07-27T05:19:00.000-07:00

For the first time ever, I am attending our annual work conference in Sun City so Im extremely excited about it! I cant wait, though many tell me that most of the day is pretty boring having to sit through a whole day of boring speeches and presentations as each division takes a turn on stage. That doesnt really concern me (Im counting on catching a few zzzz's when the lights go out) what Im really looking forward to is what comes after - THE PARTY!

Dont worry, I will behave, or try, or NOT! Im just going to have a good time. We are being entertained this year by Johnny Clegg, not too bad, it could have been worse. And I actually emjoy his music. And who can forget the day he walked past me when we were at the Cape Town airport recently!

The most exciting part about this weekend, I left for last. Yours truly, by some wonderful twist of events, is staying at the PALACE! Yes, the palace. Im still pinching myself. I won the lucky draw. Only a handful of us will be staying in these luxurious rooms while the rest stay in the Cabanas, Cascades and the main hotel. Im trying to keep it under a low profile here in the office as I dont want unexpected guests, but word is already travelling fast. At least they dont know my room number yet!

I promise to give a full report when I get back, but not before I finish recounting my tales of last week. So stay tuned!

Friday the 13th Fest II and Crossing Point

2007-07-26T01:05:00.000-07:00

After the UJfm hijacking saga, we went home and found that the rest of the family had already started eating pizza. So we dug in and considered our options as to where to go next. Martin was definitely going home (wuss) and Weasel was tired, so that just left Ferdi and me. Baaah.

He wanted to go to Bohemians to see Crossing Point but I convinced him instead to go to Tempos to see Aion Truth and co, for the Friday the 13th Fest II. I don’t know how I succeeded, but 30 minutes later, we were on the road again. It was damn cold and I wasn’t really in the mood to party, but I wanted to surprise Dylan, Amy and the rest by showing up unexpectedly, since they thought we weren’t going to make it.

I was surprised to see that the parking lot wasn’t too full. But I guess with the cold weather, it wasn’t too much of a shock. We were met with hugs and happy smiles and caught up with the gang. Libido has just finished, and next up was Is that Blood? with a lead singer sick with flu. They still sounded amazing. I really love this band.

Then it was Aion Truth’s turn. They were on form as always and managed to catch the attention of a very drunk girl who insisted on doing some back-up screaming vocals for the band. Dylan was not so keen on giving up his mic, but she was too much for Johan. She took the mic and gave us a few squeaky screams. Amy was standing at the entrance and thought that it was Dylan who had suddenly lost his voice! Haha. Luckily she gave the mic back immediately and order was restored.

Knave and Chromium followed and kicked ass! I made several trips to the bar in between songs to get…WATER! Yes, water. I just wasn’t in the mood to drink, but guess what, still had a damn good time. I did oblige to having a tequila with Morgan, what a cool chick.

I thought that after Chromium, we’d go home as Ferdi had that look on his face that said “I want to go home”. So I was quite surprised when he said that we were staying to watch the next and last band, Death By Monkeys. And I am so glad we did! I got a fright when I walked to the stage and saw three guys there with gas masks on and getting ready to play. Quite scary, lol! There was no drummer, just a guitarist, bassist and a (now I don’t know what you would call him) a dude with a computer. The lead singer had the mic attached to his mask, it was hilarious! And their music! I loved it! Most of their songs began with a cute circus type of jingle and then broke into hardcore lyrics. I must say I was impressed and would love to see them again!

Saturday we were back at Tempos, to see Crossing Point (since Ferdi didn’t get to see them the previous night). They are a band from Durban that was touring Gauteng that weekend. The gig began sometime early that afternoon and we almost didn’t make it due to some miscommunication between Martin and Ferdi. Nevertheless we made it just after 7 in time to see Crossing Point. I have never heard their music before but I soon got into it. Unfortunately, just as we were all warming up, one of their guitars malfunctioned or whatever and had to bring their short performance to a stop. We were all disappointed but at least we got to see them for a bit.

After purchasing CDs and getting them signed, we watched Unlisted, and then we went home! I have never stayed a gig for such a short time, it was crazy! But we were all hungry and tired, so after a very quick stop at McD’s (where Weasel and Ferdi practically forced me to wolf down my McMeal) we got home and went off to bed for an early night. What a weekend!

How we hijacked UJfm

2007-07-25T02:05:00.000-07:00

OK, so this is the first instalment of a series of events that took place the moment I stepped out of work on Friday the 13th and commenced my much deserved week's leave. I will gradually relate everything, but give me time, cause as you all know by now, Im lazy (plus I have been busy with Harry Potter - the book, not the boy, you pervs - and catching up with work).

So, anyway, since it was Ferdi's birthday on the 6th, he proclaimed it jubilee month, all by himself, which meant we had to celebrate the hellish day he stepped on earth and damned us all to hell, the whole bloody month. As if one day isnt enough! That Friday the 13th we had several options as to what we were gonna do to carry on with the celebrations, but were waiting for Mr Martin to arrive at our place that afternoon so we could decide and make plans. On our way home from work, while listening to DJ Russell on Ujfm, Martin sms'd Ferdi and said that he would come to our place for a bit and then go home because he was tired. So no celebrations, again, since Martin wasnt here for the 6th either.

Ferdi was upset that his friend was dropping him once more and decided that he was breaking up with him. So he asked Russell to please play Cindy Lauper's "Time after Time". Yes, I know what you are thinking - why the hell is Mr "I listen to hardcore music" Ferdi requesting such a naff song to be played on air? Is he mental? Maybe. But anyone who is a big fan of "My Name is Earl" would know that that is Randy's (Ferdi look-alike to the tee!) break up song. Hence the request. Now everyone, breathe.

Russell refused to play it, and Ferdi kept on bugging him to play it. Eventually we arrived at home and moments later so did Martin. He thought that song should be played too, so he phoned Russell and insisted he play it otherwise we would go there to the studio and beat him up. Russell said: I DARE YOU.

Well, that settled it. Ferdi came up to my room and asked if I wanted to go to the UJfm studios to beat Russell up. He quickly updated me on why we were going there and didnt hesitate to join them in this little rendezvous. After we parked at UJ and walked forever to get to E-Ring and figure out how to get in to the mighty UJfm fortress, Ferdi found a loophole and got us into the lifts near the auditorium. We soon found ourselves outside the tiny fishbowl studio, and waved at a perplexed Russell from outside the window.

The silly bugger let us in. If I had been him, I wouldnt have let us in. So its his fault. We sat on the couches next to him and tortured him for the rest of his show, one and a half hours to be exact. Well, the boys tortured him, I sat back and giggled and occassionally tried to get my voice on the airwaves. We told him which songs to play (no Cindy Lauper unfortunately on the playlist) and Martin tickled him while he read the news. I was quite impressed that he managed to read it without giggling, though he was suffering, I could see.

Occassionally, he would throw a scared look my way and I almost pitied him. But I think he did alright and managed to survive Ferdi and Martin's stinky smells and all. When he was done, the next DJ was ordered to play "Sexyback" for the boys. Im not sure if she did, cause we took a while to get to the parking lot and took forever to say goodbye to Russ.

He must have been traumatised, because the following week he visited while Nick was doing his show and warned him about certain visitors that crop up unexpectedly - Nick is scared too now. Hahaha.

I wonder if they have now barricated our secret entrance...

Rock Opera

2007-07-20T08:11:00.000-07:00

I know I know I have been waaaay too lazy to write anything lately. I even took this week off to catch up on things but mostly I have just been relaxing, though I have to admit, its been one hell of a rollercoaster this week! Got lots to report on, and I will, once I get my ducks in a row. In the meantime, have a look at this flyer, its taking place tomorrow. I cant wait!!!

Jugendtag 2007

2007-07-01T00:10:00.000-07:00

Thankfully, I survived the weekend without getting any serious injuries this time, except for a swollen, sprained finger. This youth day felt strange and out of sorts compared to previous years, and I suppose that had a lot to do with the fact that this year it took place closer to home instead of the "farmlands". For that reason, I only took part in the festivities from Saturday morning onwards, instead of Friday night. I had the option to join just about everyone for a pre-party in Hatfield, but chose to have an early nigth in instead. I did regret it a bit since I hate to miss a party and catch up with old friends, but at least I was fresh and well-rested on Saturday for the long day ahead. Blegh.

We missed the opening church service, having strolled in to the Pretoria Deutsche Schule just after 9 in the morning. Considering I was wide awake, I was jolted out of my daydream in the carpark when someone called out my name from a passing car. I couldnt see who it was but waved anyway, only to find out later that it was Andre. There was a huge tent pitched outside where most of the people were already settled in. We waited outside for Ingrid and Rudi to arrive with our new blue team rugby shirts. I was quite impressed with our new gear, the blue really made us stand out in the crowd (though we did get a bit of confused with the Kirchdorf youth, who had lighter blue tops).

After the service ended, we quickly gathered the troops for a quick song practice during the tea and cake break. First two attempts of our song "Mutig und Stark" sounded somewhat awful (and my voice sounded croaky - oh dear) but eventually we got it right and were ready to rock despite our jitters. Sonja and I made one quick run to the cake and tea stands before we lined up to sing; I was starving since I hadnt eaten much that day.

Our turn was finally up and we entered the tent with some cheers from our JHB crowd. I was trembling with fear but managed to control my stage fright and sang to the best of my ability. We all did. I think we sounded quite good actually. I thought it was quite funny that one of the other youths sang "Ablaze" for which we got rave reviews last year. So I wonder if anyone else will sing "Mutig and Stark" next year. We seem to set the precedent.

While we waited for the rest of the youths to finish their songs and the rest of the folk songs, we caught up with random friends until the next break. Lunch consisted of deformed wors, potato salad and string beans. Not too bad a meal (all of it is provided free by the host congregation), but unfortunately, when I got back to our table, I realised my beans were frozen and starting to melt on my plate. I wonder if the mothers had noticed that they were dishing out frozen beans. I pushed them to one side and ate the rest of my food as fast as possible before it drowned in defrosting beans. I had a good laugh when I looked up and saw a man that looked exactly like Mick Jagger, sans the lips. Looks like we have all sorts of weird characters around here.

After lunch we all assembled in the sports fields and got ready for the Polonaize. There were so many of us and it was nice to see a huge support crowd of parents and other relatives. Since Ingrid had gone to the car to fetch some stuff, I danced with Rudi and almost got my arms pulled from its sockets by Matt and Rudi as they dragged me across the field. It was good fun though, doing the formations on the field. To my relief, we did not have to do the volkdans after that as the brass band didnt have the sheet music for it. Phew!

Soon we kicked off with the sports. I was a bit surprised and a bit nervous to find out that I was in the ball-uebern-struck team as well as volleyball. Im scared of playing the former as I always end up getting hurt, it really is a vicious game. And that's how I hurt my left ring finger, twice. We drew our first match and lost the next two by huge margins - none of us were really concerned about that as we did not want to play any further matches. Yes, we all really hate this game.

This time the boys did quite well in volleyball, having won 2 out of 3 matches. But unfortunately they did not go through to the next round (I still dont understand the point system). Weasel managed to sprain his foot once again. I do not know what is it with that boy and his feet; he has no balance whatsoever. After that, it was time for tautzien (spelling?) aka tug-of-war. I was so proud of the boys as they won their first round and narrowly lost the second round to some dodgy umpire decision - we think they should have won, but we are still proud of them.

Volleyball was next for us, while the boys played touch rugby. We seemed to relaxed and did not win a single match this time - quite disappointing since we were defending champions. But I guess we were just there to have fun. The boys went through to the semis for touch, but after losing several men due to injuries (lol) they lost in the end. No matter, it was a result to be proud of. When the announcer mentioned that us girls made it to the semis for ball-uebern-struck, we all thought it was a sick joke. How could it have been possible? We had drawn one game and lost two??!!! But it was true. We had made it. Our next crisis was to find all our players as three went AWOL. We honestly didnt expect it. So I rounded a few extras and we poached a girl from another youth.

We did not want to go through to the finals (not really, we were tired, sunburnt and hungry) so we tried hard, but definitely not our best. In the end we did alright, yet I managed to hurt my finger once more. We lost, but it we werent disappointed at all. I must say that our support crowd was amazing. Heinz Kruse, one of our congregation member, has been to every single jugendtag for as long as I can remember, and has always cheered us on. He deserves a big thank you.

When that was done, my stomach was already begging for McDonalds, but we waited till Uwe was done with his matches. His team took most honours that day by winning volleyball, ball-uebern-struck and tautzien. I think their girls won too. Impressive results!

Finally we made it to McDs and all gathered about 5 tables together and ate to our hearts' content. Hmmm, it felt so good. After that we went to Rudi's place to bath and get ready for the party, slowly, but surely. How 12 people managed to bath in record time (and with enough water) still amazes me. We were all exhausted, but still had a good time at the party back at the school. Booze was cheap (R6 a drink!), and welcome to block out the cold. For some reason we all assembled outside. Only a few couples were dancing round and round inside. I waited till almost the end and danced with Rudi, the maestro. I was quite tense in the beginning, as always, but managed to loosen up after a few songs. Unfortunately, I did not stick with the bet I made with Sonja (to dance with THE man) : ( Im soooo chicken.

Most of our die-hard party goers from the previous night were ready to pass out, so it was only Sonja, Ferdi, me, Werner and a drunk Matt that went to Herr Gunters in Hatfield after the party ended. There were several other youth members there too, but not enough. We sat and drank for another hour then woke Rudi up at 2am so he could let us in. Hahahaha.

I didnt get much sleep on those inflatable mattrasses (as the night progressed, mine deflated) so I was more than willing to go home immediately when we woke up, rather than go to church for a record long service. After we dropped Matt off there, Ferdi and I went back to JHB. We got home just after 9am. I didnt even bother undressing or unpacking. I climbed into bed and slept well into the afternoon, and woke up to the wonderful smells of Weasel's cooking. He refused to feed me, but eventually coaxed him into sharing with me.

I said that this was definitely my last year in partaking in Jugendtag, but after having so much fun, how can I possibly not return for another round next year??!!! Only time will tell...

Here is one pic, but I will definitely post more during the week. Otherwise check my facebook profile...

Now let me go back to nursing my injuries and cold. Brrrrrrrr.

Trees - beware!!!

2007-06-29T05:14:00.000-07:00

Some of you might remember my adventure last year in KZN when I fell out of a tree at our churches' annual Youth Day get-together. It was disastrous, funny and victorious weekend in one - remember our girls' volleyball team, of which I was captain, also won?

Well, its that time of the year again, Jugendtag will be taking place tomorrow in Pretoria. Its a welcome change, since its close to home and we dont have to worry about making serious travel arrangements etc. And most of us will only be leaving early tomorrow morning to participate in the event. We will stay over on Saturday night, and return Sunday afternoon after the loooooong church service.

So its another weekend of partying, though Im hoping to take it easy as Im taking strain already. I need sleep as much as I need a holiday, i.e. BADLY! I got a few minutes of relaxation today, since its the last day of our financial year, so we all got treated to a 5 minute head and back massage. I was in heaven. Aaaaahhhhh.

I hope to return with good news on Monday morning (and no tree stories!) but only time will tell. I fear for my volleyball team, we have all gotten lazy. Anyhoo, have a good weekend all!!!

What's the point of toe socks?

2007-06-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

I just dont get them. Besides providing entertainment value by watching your toes wiggle in an assortment of colours, they offer little else, in my opinion. Last week we each got a pair of toe socks at work, as a gift for the winter solstice. I got a green and white pair, but since I am a fan of purple, I managed to swap someone else's, before they arrived at work - one of the few perks of being the first one in the office every morning.

So anyway, toe socks are a novelty that I would never think of buying for myself. There is something about them that is just creepy. But since I got them as a freebie, I thought I'd give them a try. First of all, just like I struggle to get my fingers in gloves, I struggled three times as much to get my toes into the tiny spaces offered for each. I held in my breath, and squeezed with everything I had. Once in, I thought all the blood was rushing away from my toes. The sewing on each toe was so tight, that I could barely wiggle each one.

I was in great discomfort for almost an hour (I hate to give up, even on such trivial tasks) until the socks finally stretched and allowed my toes some wiggle room. But not much. As for keeping me warm, they do a very bad job at it. I slept with them on the whole night and woke up the next morning with very sore, very pale toes.

I think I will stick with my thick wooly socks from now on. At least my toes can wiggle freely in those.

Blimey! Its cold!!!

2007-06-27T06:47:00.000-07:00

I have never been fond of winter. Cold weather makes me miserable, and the thought of piling on clothes makes me cranky. I will prolong putting on warm clothes for as long as I can but last night I had to make a beeline for my thick fleece jersey to stop me from shivering uncontrolably. I thought my Dad was joking when he looked out the window and said it was snowing while we were watching Prison Break last night. He is well known for talking kak.

So I was quite surprised when I was woken up by rain this morning. And even more so when I went outside, facing bitterly cold weather, and saw that Weasel's car was covered in ice. His screenwipers were frozen solid and would not budge. So he cautiously drove to work. There wasnt much snow to look at near our place, but as we moved closer to Randburg I saw the pavements and plants covered in snow. Radio broadcasts announced that several parts of the Eastern and Southern areas of Joburg were completely covered in snow. I wish I could have seen that.

I didnt get a chance to take photos, but dear ol Berny took some with her phone and agreed to let me use them for my blog. But unfortunately, I forgot to save them to my PC, they are still in my email. And since Im on 3G at the moment and I can only access my email via LAN, wara wara wara to make a long story short, I cannot post them now. Im too lazy. But Im sure many of you have seen all the beautiful sights this morning.

But enough now! BRING ON SUMMER!

I love my penis

2007-06-25T11:14:00.000-07:00

That was the catch phrase of the day at the Seasons Wither Rock Fest at Tempos on Saturday. Yes, I said penis. We all said penis a lot. Inki, Rudi and I narrowly beat Martin and Berny to Tempos, just in time to get some free Jager shots and enter the raffle for the guitar (unfortunately none of us won it, damn). It was still bright and early, just after 1pm when the first band, Fearfall, kicked off on the Marshall Music Stage. We parked near the stage and got us some Seasons Wither tshirts (the ones Berny and Inki are wearing below). I chose to keep my Aion Truth tshirt on, and left my Seasons Wither tshirt in Martin's car.

Just before End of Autumn's turn on stage came up, we hijacked Timmy the drummer and got him to pose for a pic with us. For the past few months we have been chatting to him in the UJfm chat room so it was cool to finally put a face and voice to the maroon bold print, lol. I was quite impressed with his band. We all moved to the front of the stage, watching cautiously for that ominous hole under the stage, and rocked to the tunes. Timmy broke his snare drum, and then threw it at the crowd. Berny got it, and promised to split half of it with me. Im still waiting. Hmmm. After they finished their set, Rudi went on stage to get it signed. We cant take him anywhere. Lol.

Matt from Chromium was attacked next. I cant say why we made him blush, but he definitely went red in the face. Could have been the sun, but we know better. Hahahaha. We discussed random stuff like chatting on msn/mxit, and about our little UJfm debate on how Chromium is NOT too loud in the morning. Its better than coffee for a good wake up call!

Ah, and here is my penis. As I was making a trip to the loo, I bumped into Jean from Knave. After a hug, he sneaked in this sticker and stuck it on my arm. I went back to my peeps and proudly showed it off. Of course, they all wanted some too. After searching desperately for Jean, we managed to hound Louis from Knave, who also posed for a pic, hehehhhehh. We all love penis.

I think we missed the next few bands as we posed for all these pics and met up with other people etc. After a few months of chatting online, I also got to meet Stix. As soon as he arrived, I dragged him to watch Tony Danza, a band that I think is hilarious and quite enjoy watching. Berny, the lucky bugger, won an Ozzy CD that was thrown into the crowd. How that girl manages to catch all these things escapes me, she is too damn fast. But Im glad she won it. We are both huge Ozzy fans.

I watched a bit of Unlisted too, but after that I didnt really pay much attention. The rugby had started so we moved to the bar, but I couldnt concentrate on that either. My attention span was worse than a 4 year-old with ADD. I moved around a lot and eventually settled down when Aion Truth came on stage just after 7pm. It was already a long day, which at the same time was flying (if that makes any sense) and I was exhausted. But we still rocked to my favourite band, of course!!! While Berny and I were bobbing our heads up and down, this creepy guy stood right behind us with a weird smile on his face. We gave him a dirty look and then put our arms around each other and moved from side to side to give him the message that he must buzz off. But he wouldnt leave. I turned around once more and thats when my eyes opened wide and my mouth dropped. This creepy guy was actually Judd, the former drummer from Munkinpure. He had told us he was going to meet us Tempos, but we just didnt recognise him because of his unshaven face!!! Hahahhahaha. We had a good laugh about it, then posed for mountains of photos.

After Aion Truth, again my concentration lacked, so I moved between stages and watched a bit of Deity's Muse, Torment, Falling Short, Knave and Hikatori. Not that I dont like the bands, because I seriously do, but I was just too hyper to stay in one place at a time. Plus there were so many people, too many people actually. It made me dizzy. I was most disappointed that I wasnt able to watch Falling Short and Torment's full sets. I have to make it up to these boys BIG TIME.

I posed for more random pics with random people, like Wes from Torment and then Charles (Torment) and Bianca, then finally settled down to watch Chromium. They had such a huge crowd! It was electrifying! I then remembered that the UJ dj's were MC'ing that night, lol. What a space cadet I am. I managed to bump into Sam, and then Klaus, but that was about it. Oh well. Chromium was on fire and got the crowd going. I loved every minute of it.

Unfortunately, we left after Chromium ended cause everyone, including myself, was tired. So we missed out on Inersha, Monkeyfinger, Guernica and Chokehold. But it was still one of the best shows I have ever attended. No wait, let me correct that, it WAS THE BEST show I have ever attended!!! I hope there will be more like these in the future!

I MET NICK!!!!!

2007-06-22T04:46:00.000-07:00

Im so super-excited that I just met Nick, the sexy DJ from UJFM who tickles my senses every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning from 6-9. This morning topic of discussion was in how many languages you could say "I love UJFM". Being the linguistic fanatic that I am, I phoned in and had a nice conversation, uttering the phrase in Spanish, Portuguese and German, as well as a poor attempt at Japanese, after Berny requested it. He liked the way I sounded and immediately said I must marry him. When I asked him if that was a proposal he got all shy and laughed. lol

OK, enough about that, Im getting a bit off topic now. The reason for his visit at our prestigious offices was to deliver the 5 CDs I won last month in the Genius of the Month Competition. Yes, yours truly is the Genius for the month of May, after a nerve-wrecking fight to the top, sms'ing in my answers faster than the speed of lightning. In the end, it was more of a fight of who had the fastest fingers, rather than who was the brightest. I still came out tops.

This sweetie pie insisted on delivering the CDs personally, even though I could have gone to UJ to fetch them myself (he is leaving for Germany for 2 weeks on Monday, so if I fetched them, eh wouldnt be there, obviously). So I was quite chuffed when I got a message from a fellow UJ chat room buddy that works at the bank here too and is friends with Nick. I raced down to his office and finally met the gorgeous Nick. I was shaking all over but I think I managed to compose myself. We chatted for a bit and then he handed over the CDs. As we walked over to the lifts, he hugged me one more time and I almost last my lift in the process. As the doors closed I let out a big sigh, and scolded myself for being so silly. Lol. I hope he comes to visit again soon!!

So what CDs did I get? They all seem to be old, but good selections nonetheless:
Skillet - C0matose
Stone Temple Pilots - Thank you
Hard-Fi - Stars of CCTV
Green Day - International Superhits!
Linkin Park - Live in Texas

Yay! Me so happy!!!

Seasons Wither Rock Festival

2007-06-21T06:11:00.000-07:00

I have been looking forward to this gig for months now ever since I heard it was happening. Now its almost here, just two more sleeps!!!!! It has a great selection of talented and diverse bands to suit most people's tastes. I hope that many of you will be making it to this prestigious event!!!

Doors open at 12 and bands begin playing at 1:00pm. I for one, will definitely be supporting my favourite band, Aion Truth!!! Berny and I will be right in front, like the two good sergeants that we are. Also, there is a guitar up for grabs. A R8,500 Jackson guitar, which the first 200 people are eligible to win! Plus free Jagermeister shots to the first 100 people and many more cool stuff to be given away!!! Some of the UJfm DJs will be there too. What more can you ask for?

Here is the line-up:

** THE MUSIC CONNECTION STAGE **

11:30 - CHOKEHOLD
10:40 - INERSHA
9:50 - CHROMIUM
8:40 - KNAVE
7:40 - DEITY'S MUSE
6:50 - NAMUH
6:00 - BLUE BIRD THEORY
5:10 - UNDERBELLY
4:20 - UNLISTED
3:30 - TONY DANZA
2:40 - ALL FORLORN
1:50 - END OF AUTUMN
1:00 - FEARFALL

**THE MARSHALL MUSIC STAGE **

11:30 - GUERNICA
10:40 - MONKEY FINGER
9:50 - FALLING SHORT
8:50 - HIKATORI
8:00 - TORMENT
7:10 - AION TRUTH
6:20 - ELEGY
5:30 - UNDERTONE
4:40 - ONLY FOREVER
3:50 - ALBINOBEACH
3:00 - WARTHANE
2:10 - NEW FOUND DISORDER
1:20 - AUTUMN SUN

See you in the mosh pit!!! (or on the edge of it, Im chicken-sh*t).

I beg for a better day today!!!!

2007-06-20T11:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a day to be reckoned with. After a sleepless night of tossing and turning painfully, while screaming into my pillow, I woke up feeling miserable and in need of meds. My lower back pain is back with a vengeance, giving me sleepless nights and unabling me to walk, stand or sit properly. Im not too sure what triggered it this time, but since I havent been doing my exercises for months now, its not surprise that my back is telling me to get back on the treadmill!!!

I crawled to work and put on a brave face - I didnt want anyone to tell me again that I have to go to physio or go for a voltaren injection (though I really should). But my grimaces and slight limp gave it all away.

Comfort food always helps so I got a sticky caramel muffin in the cafeteria downstairs. The hot chocolate smells coming from the coffee area attracted me so I got me a cup as well. The lift took forever to get there and I was so afraid I was going to have one of my klutz moments and spill the hot choc all over the place. Eventually I made it to my desk, safe and sound, painfully sat and my desk, peeled of the lid of the hot choc cup and chatted a bit on UJfm.

Something triggered my excitement because before I knew it, I had knocked over my cup and spilled hot chocolate all over my desk. I shouted a big loud F*CK! and immediately people came running to my rescue with napkins and tissues. Miraculously, it missed my laptop, but my desk phone was a sticky mess. Half of a box of tissues later, all the hot chocolate was wiped off, but very sticky, so I used a wet cloth from the kitchen to get rid of all that. I then sat on my chair with a defeated look, crying over spilt milk (and hot chocolate lol). OK, I didnt cry, but I was quite upset with my clumsiness.

The day didnt get any better, as my pain worsened and I was bored to tears. I hate quiet weeks, I'd rather be busy with work. It just keeps me out of mischief.

So Im hoping for a better day today. The back pain is still there, but things are looking up. This morning I got to work to find a pair of toe socks and one of those coloured block cube thingies that you have to sort out. Weird gifts and Im still not too sure why we all got them, but who cares? At least I got something to keep me occupied today!! (oh, and my boss is off ill today, hee hee hee. Hope karma doesnt get me for saying this).

Why I was fired...

2007-06-20T04:37:00.000-07:00

For the last departmental picnic, management decided that due to liability issues, we could have alcohol, but only one (1) drink per person.
I was fired for ordering the cups.

NOTE: this is a joke. Just some light humour....lol

Lets set the record straight

2007-06-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

It seems that, by reading my blogs, some people are getting the wrong impression as to what sort of a person I am these days. So let me give you all a crash course on who I am, right now. But before I do that, let me tell you about the person I used to be, back in high school. I was very shy, listened to pop music *cringe*, and worked very hard in school to get top grades. So you could say I was a conscientous, responsible child with her head screwed on straight.

So what changed? Not much really. I still work hard, but I also party hard. As soon as I began varsity, I slowly came out of my shell and started to party quite a bit, yet my studies never faltered. In fact, I did better than I did in high school. I just wasnt the shy girl I used to be anymore. Soon I got my degree and started to work almost immediately at a bank.

This set up a whole lot of new challenges for me, that I took head on, and in the six years that I have been working there, I managed to secure a business analyst job at one of the more prestigious divisions of the bank, together with some nice perks. Cushy job, that allows me a lot of freedom to do what I want to do when I am not busy, which happens a lot lately, and so sometimes I get distracted with other things like the internet. But I am not so silly that I will let myself get caught up in it and lose my job as a consequence. I need this job, as much as I hate it sometimes, so I am not going to do anything to jeopardise it. And yes, I did one stupid blunder a few weeks ago at our work weekend away, but I learnt my lesson immediately and I was forgiven just as quick. I wont make the same mistake again, Im not stupid.

However, I dont plan to stay in banking forever. Even my boss, of all people (!!) encouraged me to follow my dreams while Im still young, and leave if I have to! I told him that I always wanted to become a journalist / photographer, and he suggested I work towards it! My boss understands me, and we have a great working relationship. He has always given me great reviews, and when he kakked me out for the very first time a few weeks ago, I felt so bad that I had upset him, because I enjoy having him as a boss. I dont take him for granted. He is probably one of the main reasons why Im still here in this job.

Now we come to the crux of the matter: drinking. Sorry to say, but this forms a big part of my life. My parents introduced me to alcohol from a young age, and have never really had issues with me drinking. We have a lot of social gatherings at work, where drinking is involved and dammit, we even drink at church! This year Im even organising the annual beerfest at the church!

But there is one thing that many need to understand: I am not an alcoholic loser. I realise that 90% of my blogs these days are about me getting vrot at a gig / party because frankly, I dont have the time or energy to write about the other aspects of my life or any other interests I might have. But maybe I should.

If I was really into heavy drinking, I would be drinking every day. I should be hungover right now. But Im not. Weeks may go by before I even touch a drink. And occassionally, I can actually party without even bothering to drink. I dont need to drink to have a good time. I just enjoy drinking - is that really bad? I dont drive (and believe me, when I do start to drive, thats going to stop), I dont hurt anyone with my drinking (except maybe my liver, lol).

As Im reading back what I have just written, I am thinking to myself: "why am I even bothering?" My real friends know me, they know Im not a danger to myself and that I still have lots of ambitions that I am working towards. And they are not losers themselves either. They are all hardworking, honest people who will stick by me through thick and thin. So why am I trying to defend my actions here? To be honest, I have no clue. Im tempted to delete this all and just shout a big "Screw this". But I will leave it. Read it, rip it to shreds, do what you like. Im comfortable with my life and am happy with the friends who believe in me and trust me not to go and screw things up.

In the words of Joy's mother from My Name is Earl (Berny will get this one, lol):

Dont you judge me.

Sleep deprivation and caffeine overdoses

2007-06-18T04:44:00.000-07:00

I have spent the last five hours or so trying very very hard not to fall asleep on my desk. All my troubles and caffeine overdoses went down the drain when I decided to catch up on my reading the economics articles. With one hand holding my heavy head up, as I looked down to read all these technical jargon, the words became more jumbled than alphabet soup and slowly my eyes closed as I dozed off. I should have read the cosmo.

Coke seems to help but Im really struggling today. Im sleep deprived! Last weekend I got a few hours of shut-eye and didnt get a chance to catch up much during the week. This weekend was even worse. After Friday night's road trip, I had to get up early in the morning for our church's Spring Festival / Beerfest meeting. At least that is going well and I was commended on my good organising skills. After Ferdi and I came back from that meeting, I was miff to find out that Weasel was still sleeping! Not fair!

I was hoping to take a nap but the day just got busier and busier. The newly recovered Shawn invited us over for a braai since this was his official birthday and his parents werent home. So off we went and celebrated some more. Ingrid and I spent the whole night doing, well, nothing! We suckered the boys (Ferdi mostly. Apparently we are now top of the "Pile-on List" lol) into doing everything for us: cooking, cleaning up, pouring drinks for us. We even got Ferdi to pour us tequila while they were playing poker and we were just lying on the couch watching Mtv. Lol. A few more chores and Ferdi will be able to received his Domestication Certificate!

In the end I was so tired (from calling Ferdi every five minutes, haha) that I dozed off on the couch. But it wasnt much of a rest as I was still semi-conscious and was awaken every few minutes or so. I got to bed late that night again, and once more, had to get up early on Sunday morning for our special Youth Service at church. Our youth meeting that afternoon was an hour earlier than usual so I had little time after the service to really do anything besides eat and watch a bit of TV. I hurt both arms again playing volleyball. The cold weather makes it a hell of a lot worse. And Im not too sure about our volleyball team this year - will we win like we did last year? I hope to at least make the finals!

As I sat last night in my room watching a movie, I could feel my eyes battling it out to stay open and thus try to concentrate on the movie. I made it, but just barely. The fact that I now wake up at 5am every morning just to get to work in 15 minutes instead of 40, is not going to help my situation much. But I suppose its nothing I cant handle. Sleep deprivation has never killed anyone, right?

*runs off to get more coffee*

Back in da hood

2007-06-17T10:08:00.000-07:00

Going back to my old neighbourhood turned out the be scarier than we anticipated. I think we were there for a total of five minutes before we were out of the quicker than you could say "Bring out the shotguns!" I dont know what was scarier, the pub down the road from my old house, or London Calling full of metalheads in what looked like a scene from Little Shop of Horrors. Yes, they even scared me. I was a little disappointed that we didnt go in to see the bands, but trust me, that is not a place you want to be hanging around. Its amazing how much the 'hood has changed since we moved out 6 years ago.

In those 5 minutes, I gave the girls a quick tour of my old neighbourhood (the boys were in Weasel's car) and then we decided to go to the KEG in Bedfordview. On the way we passed Jeppe Prep, my old school, as well as Jeppe Boys and Girls. Of course, I went to Jeppe Girls and Weasel and Ferdi went to Jeppe Boys. Lol. It was funny they way we drove all this way, and ended up at the KEG, so far away from home.

At the KEG, we went right to the top, where it was rather quiet, and soon it got rather noisy with us hooligans. We started off with Jagerbombs and proceeded from there. I thought this was a much better option rather than to go watch bands, as we got the chance to chat all night, talk crap and make jokes. I must say we all rather enjoyed it.

After all those drinks, I was surprisingly fine and was rather alert on the way home. Some people, I wont mention names (lol), were drunk and disorderly, and we had to stop about 5 times before we got home. The creative juices flowed in Berny's veins as she composed (and sang) a lovely song for us, so we even had "in flight" entertainment! How lucky are we? lol. Part of my co-pilot duties were to keep the driver calm, Uli, and quieten down the rowdy passengers. But it was all good in the end as we made it home safe and sound.

As for a certain birthday boy, well, he wanted to sleep in the toilet, even dared to ask for a chair. I just thought it was really funny that he got up the next morning, bright and early and feeling fine, while Weasel was eventually dragged out of bed, at in 1 in the afternoon. Sheesh, these slackers...haha.

Tonight! Break out the shotguns!!!!

2007-06-15T01:26:00.000-07:00

Ok, enough will all the bull...t!

...we're going to town! Back to my old neighbourhood, that is! Its been almost 6 years since I was last there. I wonder how much its changed since the crazy Argentineans left.

What's the occassion? Inki and Shawns combined birthday party at London Calling! We have never been there before, so this will be a new experience for us all. While last year's birthday party was a bit disastrous for me (lol who can forget? Definitely not Weasel!), I have a good feeling about this one. And yes, alcohol will be involved, but so will good friends and lots of laughter!

PLUS! Billy Talent II Album Promo party with NEW FOUND DISORDER, IS THAT BLOOD?, DEBRIS and 7 MONKEY FURY! R20 entrance! I cant wait to see Is that Blood? again. They are such a kickass band!!!

Lets make this a good one!!!

In and out of the dog box

2007-06-13T04:15:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, I got kakked out from a dizzy height on Monday afternoon for sneaking out on Saturday night. My boss was furious. I, of course, felt guilty, especially since I missed out on such a great karaoke evening!!! And I didnt get to perform my famous rendition of "I touch myself", something Im quite well known for in the office.

I have never seen my boss this upset. In fact, it was the first time he has ever been upset with me. I took it quite seriously, and felt so bad about it, that I had to do something to rectify the situation. You see, my boss is well known for his sensitivity and holding grudges so I had to react quickly.

Suggestions flew in from all over the globe (haha): show some cleavage, sing "I touch myself" for him and do that special little dance, place a muffin on his desk and look at him with puppy dog eyes while saying "Sorry".

Eventually I went to an easy option that proved to be well and trusted. I got to work at the crack of dawn this morning and placed a box of Lidnt chocolates with a short note explaining how sorry and bad I felt for letting him down. And I wore a mini skirt. He wasnt there yet and I waited anxiously for his arrival.

Several hours later, my office phone rings and my heart literally stopped when I saw his name on the display. I took a deep breath and answered. He told me he got the chocs, said thank you and not to worry about it anymore. Phew! I was out of the dog box! Of course, he wanted something from me (work, you dirty minded-people) but thats beside the point. All is well now!

Well, at least I hope so. I know I will have to watch what I do from now on and think twice before I decide to sneak out from anywhere that's work related. I have definitely learnt my lesson!

These bloody Capetonians!!

2007-06-11T05:41:00.000-07:00

That was my favourite saying this weekend, but as much as some annoyed me, my weekend was the best ever, thanks to my awesome Cape Town friends. You guys ROCK!!!

Friday afternoon, I left work early together with my work team-mates, for our annual weekend away. This time we went to the Arabella Hotel in the Western Cape, about 15 minutes away from Hermanus. I was drunk before we even took off as we sat and drank at McGintys before boarding the plane. I was a bit nervous about the flight, as always, but listening to my Ipod on the way and reading Spud – The Madness Continues, most definitely helped to calm me down. I decided not to drink on the plane as I couldn’t find a barf bag. Lol.

We landed just after 4, and soon we were on our way to the hotel. By then I was sober and feeling rather miserable because half of the team wasn’t joining us this time (remember we split our division at the beginning of the year) and that included my partner in crime, Karen. I had no clue who I was going to party with that night, but since Im a party animal by nature, at the back of my mind I knew it was going to be alright. But the weather didn’t help my mood. It was miserable, but at least not as cold as the Capetonians had warned us about! These bloody Capetonians! Haha.

The drive there was quicker than we thought. We checked in and relaxed in our luxurious rooms before dinner. The hotel was like paradise. I don’t even want to know how much it costs to stay there per night. After a nice long bath, I got ready and joined the others at the bar. I settled with my SoCo and engaged in boring conversation. I was thankful when we were finally called for dinner in one of the conference rooms. Dinner wasn’t anything grand (though at R350 p/head, you’d think it would be) but dessert was to die for. The best was these tiny amarula cakes. Yum!

The DJ then cranked up the tunes and people opened the dancefloor. For the first time ever, it wasn’t me. I wasn’t getting drunk quick enough and the music was not up to my taste. So I sat and sulked. I really wished Karen was there. Eventually some dude dragged me to the dancefloor. So I downed my drink and ordered another one. The quicker I got drunk the sooner I was going to enjoy this. Eventually I was trashed and even let some of the boys twirl me around, yes, I did the langarm.

I don’t remember much else, except that I had a heart-to-heart with my boss (I must not go near him when Im drunk), chatted with a guy whose wife is also Argentinean, headbanged to AC/DC and Bon Jovi (hee hee), and drank two Jagerbombs in a row which sealed my fate. I ended up falling asleep on the grass outside near the lake, and waking up at 3am when it started to rain. I went back to my room and had to wake my friend up cause my card wouldn’t work. I fell asleep immediately in my glorious bed.

And it felt like I woke up 5 minutes later, at 7am. I ignored my alarm and went back to sleep. At 8 I forced myself to get up, shower and head down to breakfast. I was aching all over (why do I have to dance so much?) and struggled to eat anything. At 9:30 we were back on the bus and headed to our first wine farm, part of our wine tour. Most of us groaned with the pain, nursing terrible hangovers and injuries. Our tour guide started his commentary as soon as we drove off, and even though he promised he was going to keep quite for a while (we all cheered), 2 minutes later he was back on the microphone (groan). But soon he had us in stitches – not intentionally though. As we were approaching the wine farm, he told us all to “sit down because we were now entering a gravel road and its quite steep”. Nobody was standing up – no one had even thought of standing up. Did he think we were 12 year olds? Lol.

He then told us about the swans in that wine farm. He said we should tell him if we are going to go look for swans (?? More laughter). Someone offered R100 to the first lucky bugger that spotted one. In the end, turns out there weren’t any swans left. The otters got them.

This dude should do stand up comedy.
We sampled some red and white wine, got blown away by strong winds and then got back on the bus and headed off to a wine farm in Hermanus. Don’t ask me what all these wine farms and wines were called, because I cannot remember, and don’t really care. Just give me wine and I will sample it. Though I am not a big fan of red wine. Merlot gives me headaches.

We were done early, so we toured a bit of Hermanus and listened to some boring history lessons from our guide. Apparently Hermanus has a railway station, but no railway lines, because Mr Hoi did not want the “peasants” to ruin the town. I cant believe I paid attention to all this. Hahaha. Since the party that night was to include karaoke (which I was going to miss, thank god) one of the ladies started singing “The Hills are alive” (with the sound of music). Us peeps in the back of the bus joined her. We were so out of tune, it was beautiful.

Lunch was at the Hornbull, which was very nice, I must say. We had a set menu and I opted for some vegetable curry with cous-cous and coconut (luckily I couldn’t taste the coconut). We had more wine (groan) and a delicious dessert of chocolate wafers with cream (me – minus the cream, ugh). Lunch dragged as most of us were about to doze off. I was thankful when finally it was time to go and fell asleep for a little while on the short drive back to the hotel.

I had to hurry because I had about 15 minutes to pack my bags and rush down to the spa for my facial. The facial was so relaxing and I dozed off when the therapist put a mask on my face and left me alone for about 10 minutes. After we were done, I was really sleepy and went to the change rooms to put my clothes back on. I was shocked to find one of the guys in there and looked at him in a confused, sleepy daze. He told me I must be in the wrong place so I gave him another puzzled look and walked out. Just then it hit me that I had walked into the men’s changerooms!!!! I blushed furiously and rushed into the ladies’ changerooms before anyone else noticed. Thank god he had been fully clothed!!!

I ran back to my room, finished packing, and went to watch the rugby. I couldn’t find any of the guys at the bar – they weren’t even showing the rugby! Some old farts were watching the tennis!!! So I phoned one of the guys and went to his room and watched it there while my friend napped in our room. But before the game ended, Tink and Chim arrived to pick me up so I left and went to meet them. They helped me with my bags and as I was checking out, I saw the barman looking at me with a worried look on his face. Yes, he was losing one of his biggest customers.

The drive to Cape Town was nice and short, and I was surprisingly awake and chatty. It was so nice to catch up with the girls. As soon as we arrived, we decided to cure one of our cravings: we had waffles at Milky Lane!! Now all we needed was lasagne! Lol. With our tummies full, we dropped off all our stuff at Tink’s sisters place then joined Mr Cloudgazer at News Café in Canal Walk for cocktails. I didn’t enjoy my first one, a very milky Screaming Orgasm. Chim spilt her daiquiri (sacrilege) but it was topped up by the kind barmen. I handed my orgasm to Tink (that sounds disturbing) and ordered some Gigglejuice which soon had me giggling like a 12 year old. Tequila soon followed, naturally.

It was then time for some drunken phone calls and the lucky recipients were Berny, Vomit and Inki. I cannot be held responsible for any information I divulged, as I cannot remember. The more we drank, the more we giggled and the more crazy the conversations got. I just wish I had kept quite about my “favourite song”.

We waited until Misses finally gave us the call so we could head off to her place for more cocktails. We made a pit stop at McDonalds (chips craving sorted) and arrived all drunk and disorderly at the Walshes and met up with the rest of the Cape Town JNFers. Misses made us a killer Chocolate Martini and I was proud to have eventually finished it. Little Misses aka Emily was still awake and loved to pose for pics. She is so adorable!

After some pics and more giggles, we were kicked out and went our separate ways. I stayed with Tink at her sister’s place and we were up till the early hours of the morning talking. Eventually I couldn’t keep my eyes open and went to sleep. The few hours that I got weren’t enough but I got up anyway. After a shower I was a bit more awake. I packed my bags nicely and then we headed off to Primi at Canal Walk for some brunch. We walked around the centre until it was time to go to the airport. I was worried about what my boss and co would say about me sneaking off the day before and wondered if I still had a job!!!

On the way to the airport I cringed at how slow most of the Capetonians drove!! It drove me nuts! Once we arrived, I was relieved that my crowd hadn’t arrived yet. I phoned my friend to find out what was happening and she said my boss kept on asking where I was. She told him I had an early night and slept till late. He didn’t click that I wasn’t with them most of Sunday.

Finally they all arrived and I stepped in and joined them at the check out counter as if I had been there all the time with them. Some had to ask me, very loudly, where I had been, but my boss was still none the wiser, or at least, he pretended to be so. I then said my goodbyes to Tink and entered the gates with the rest of the gang.

We flew in a large, almost new airbus and I soon dozed off. My aches were getting worse and I struggled to keep my eyes open. We eventually touched down in Joburg just after 5 and were bussed to the airport to collect our luggage. The bus was full of Americans who just wouldn’t shut up. I cant stand the nasal American drone. These bloody Yankees!

Waiting for our luggage took forever, and I could see Weasel waiting impatiently outside with arms folded. It was almost 7 when I got home. All I had energy for was unpacking my bags. I did that in record time and was in bed by 8. Bliss. Aaah.
But why do I still feel hangover, exhausted and sore today? : (

Dealing with addictions

2007-06-06T01:09:00.000-07:00

I am not talking of the serious kind, like sex, drugs and alcohol (I will save it for another time when I am feeling less insane). Rather, I mean the kind of addictions that keep me distracted from my work! I am talking about chat rooms, forums, myspace, facebook, skype, msn, mxit, dammit, the list just goes on and on! Its become so bad that I have even neglected this blog of mine for weeks. Its not on!

What happens now is that as soon as I sit my ass in front of the computer at work, I immediately log on to UJfm chat room and slowly progress onto the rest of my addictive sites. Before I realise it, its almost lunchtime and I start to panic and wonder how the hell I am going to get my reports done before the end of the day. I count to ten, eat my lunch, and carry on chatting!

Sometimes I do snap out of it and manage to squeeze in an hour's work, but most of the time I put it off until the next day and the next, until I eventually have a near-fatal heart failure and set a whole day aside and work furiously trying to meet deadlines. I just dont know how much longer I can keep this up. The upside of all this is that during the past few months I have made so many new friendships over the net and even met several of these cool people.

I have come to realise that this addicition is hiding an underlying problem in my life - I am bored and unsatisfied with my job. Its time to make a change. I have thought about it, and even though its definitely not going to happen overnight, I have something in the pipeline. It will take at least 5 years, but Im going to make it happen, if its the last thing I do.

In the meantime, you can catch me in a chat room near you.

Tempos - Party with a Purpose

2007-05-28T04:29:00.000-07:00

Yes, I woke up hungover just in time for lunch but I was so looking forward to this next gig at Tempos that soon I was cured and ready to party. Martin dropped Berny and Brydon at my house and after waiting “patiently” for the boys to finish watching the Rugby Sevens we went to Tempos for the charity gig, “Party with a Purpose”. This was in aid of the Strathyre Girls Home. I love these charity events, so I brought some of my old clothes to donate to the home as well.
It was freezing again, so Berny and I headed straight for the bar and started off with tequila and our usual Smirnoff Storm. I so wish I had slowed down a bit. We went back outside and joined the Aion Truth lads who were standing next to a cozy warm fire. We had plenty of time before the first band started so we caught up with the band and drank and drank and drank. We spoke about what brands of alcohol got us wasted. Jagermeister came up and so it occurred to us that we should have Jagerbombs. And so we had. And I wish I hadn’t.

Two hours later, and several shooters down our throats, Is that Blood? came on. The crowd they had was amazing, so much so that I couldn’t even get to the front to take some photos. Certainly not bad for a band’s first gig! I had listened to one of their tracks several months ago and I looked forward to this gig for a long time. They certainly didn’t disappoint!

After them, it was Libido’s turn and this time we managed to get to the front and partied with Aion Truth. And guess what they offered to the crowd? Jagermeister! Oh dear. I had several shots, which I shared with Morgan, but it still affected me dearly. I could feel my head spinning. They threw some merchandise to the crowd as well, and after a few misses, I finally managed to score a Diesel cap which I wore for the rest of the evening. Libido did their cover of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” again, which I love, and so we all went craaaaaazy. These guys kickass.

Finally it was my favourite band to go on stage. Aion Truth! Duh! While they set up I got them some water and tried to sober up a little myself, but it was to no avail. Berny and I went nuts in the front and enjoyed every minute of AT’s performance. We even got a song dedicated to us, hehehhhh, their number one fans.

Chromium came on next, but I watched from the sidelines while I let Berny take-over photographing duties. She did well. When I start my own photography services, I will definitely hire her, lol. Morgan was evil enough to get us another round of Jagerbombs and that sealed my fate. I was pissssed as hell. I don’t even think I watched the last band, Hell to Pay.

We left soon after and I climbed into bed as soon as I got home, trying not to think of the hangover that awaited me the next morning. Not only did I have the mother of all hangovers, but also the flu. I still cant stop sneezing. My nose feels like a raw faulty tap. Ugh. I don’t even know why Im at work now. But its not going to stop me from partying up a storm, again and again and again. Life’s a party, enjoy the ride while you still can!

Sam’s not 21 birthday thingy

2007-05-28T03:49:00.000-07:00

One of the cool things about being on the UJfm chat room all day (I am a self-confessed addict) is that you get to become well acquainted with the DJs as well as some very cool (and crazy) people, one of the crazy ones being Berny and myself. We have discovered some of our many personalities, occasionally coming in as Patricia Lewis, Amor Vittone and Kurt Darren, among others. This provides barrels of laughter and not much productivity in the end.

There are some regulars in the chat room, other than Berny and myself and we have clicked with some of them, so much that we have now called ourselves the “Fab 5”. A bit presumptuous of us, some might say, but it had caught on quite well and our popularity has soared with the DJs, especially Sam, who does the afternoon drive. And so she invited us for drinks last Friday night to celebrate her 20th birthday.
We got there fashionably late; over 2 hours after the party had started. Thanks to one of the F5, who I will not mention, I missed out on meeting my favourite DJ, Nick. I guess Im just going to have to wait a little bit longer. By then Sam was already tipsy and enjoying the company of good friends, including Fred and Kerran from iNeRsHa, in the cozy little joint in Melville. Eventually we managed to squeeze at one of the tables (which was rather nice since it was such a cold night, what better way to keep warm then to huddle all together?). I felt a bit claustrophobic but a few tequilas sorted that out.

We met some of the other DJs, and engaged in funny conversations, especially with Adam, he is hilarious. He was the last one to leave and stayed with us almost to the end. Sam had left early as she was driving home alone. Smart girl.

We left close to midnight after listening to some crazy chick talk about affirmative action. We all had the munchies so we stopped at Fontana to cure our cravings. I was then dropped off at home and groaned at the fact that I knew I was going to be hungover the next day, when drinking was to be resumed. The story continues…

Tempos - the Rock Soup Kitchen

2007-05-21T05:27:00.000-07:00

Luck was on my side as Berny and I managed to find a way to get to Tempos yesterday for the Rock Soup Kitchen gig. This time we got dropped off by her brother Martin, while her younger brother, Brydon, joined us for this long day full of some of the coolest bands in SA. Having won two tickets to the event earlier this week, Berny and I were VIP guests, how cool is that? It felt weird to be there so early – it was just after 13:00. Munkinpure was already setting up on stage, doing sound check. We got some drinks and settled at a table in front of the stage. Travis, the lead singer came over to say hi. Last time we saw him was at the Friday the 13th Fest and we were totally smashed. So this meeting was a bit weird, with us being sober.

Being the first band to play on stage is never the best thing on earth, especially when its 13h00, there is a rugby match and FA Cup final on the way and only a handful of people watching. But this didn’t seem to trouble Munkinpure, as Travis said to us, this is mainly a metal gig, and since they are anything but a metal band, they’d rather play first before the hardcore metal bands get there, lol. I enjoyed their set and recognised two of their songs that have been getting a lot of radio play in UJfm, “Breathe” and “Beautiful Day”. Stunning.

After that, it was Tony Danza’s turn. No, it wasn’t the big nosed Italian actor from “Who’s the Boss”, haha. Instead it was a three man band, who did some interesting covers of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” and a Deep Purple Song. Their new song, “Road Rage” which apparently they had written the night before, had me in stitches. The singer didn’t know all the words to it, so he had a sheet of paper sprawled in front of him.

We skipped the next few bands so we could watch the Super 14 final inside by the bar. Naturally, Berny and I supported the Sharks (due to personal reasons, I can never bring myself to support the Bulls) and sat at the edge of our seats during this tantalising, nail-biting match. I was getting annoyed with some loud-mouthed, pompous Bulls supporters and fought to keep my glee as the Sharks were in the lead during the dying minutes of the match. Unfortunately, Habana scored a try for the Bulls just after the siren went off, and Hougaard converted, putting them in the lead and crowning them the new Super 14 champions. Needless to say, Berny and I got out there fast enough.

We watched the last few minutes of Far Beyond Driven – really hardcore band but unfortunately I was too distracted to pay attention. Most of the evening bands were starting to arrive so I had a bit of a catch up session and every now and then I went in to the bar to check the FA Cup score. It was 0-0 for the entire match, which went into extra time, right up until five minutes before the end when Chelsea scored and ruined what was supposed to be a great sporting weekend. Kerran from Inersha was in his element, a proud Chelsea supporter. Anyone who listens to Sam’s show on UJfm will know that they had a little wager about who was going to win. Looks like Kerran is the winner.

Knave was on next, I enjoyed every minute of their performance, as well as Namuh’s after that. When Inersha came on, I was surprised to see my brothers arrive as well as Martin and Shawn. I never thought they’d actually come so it was cool to have them there. Berny reminded me this morning of the drunk pirate that came on stage (yes, a pirate) and took the mic away from Fred before he could sing. That wasted about 2 minutes, until he finally gave the mic back. What a noob, lol.

The band that I was really waiting to see was Torment. They were sure on form that night, they were KICKASS!!! I cannot wait for their CD to come out. My throat still hurts from all the screaming. Next on was Chromium, who I always enjoy. I managed to score more drumsticks from Hannes, and a pick from Matt. I also got half a stick from Charles from Torment, so I didn’t have to fight Berny to the death with a wooden spoon for it, my weapon of choice.

Soon after that, Berny and Martin left, so I sat down and watched Agro, the next band. I hadn’t seen them since Woodstock 6, so it was really cool to see them again. By then I was feeling really tired, hungry and halfway between sobering up and falling asleep, but I still enjoyed the band.

Last but not least was Insek. These guys have such cool masks! A little bit freaky, but really cool. Their set was surprisingly short, or so it seemed to me, but it was alright since all I wanted to do is get into bed and die. I thanked Bianca for putting together such a great show, got in the car with my brothers and slept all the way home. Yesterday I recovered indoors, and watched 300 again. Im still a bit fragile though and makes me wonder just for how much longer I can keep this up. Lol. But hey, at least I have fun!

Is Chromium too loud in the morning?

2007-05-15T11:21:00.000-07:00

We had this debate on UJfm last week and I think we won fair and square. I am all for loud in the morning - the louder the better, something to wake me and cheer me up on the way to work. Coffee just doesnt seem to do it for me anymore, so why not a dose of good screaming from Chromium? The DJ of the hour was a bit concerned, after having played the track "Control" on the radio at 7am, that maybe it was a bit too loud and rough for the morning and asked everyone to phone in and give their opinions.

He knew that I was going to phone and kick his ass, cause I am a huge Chromium fan so of course I did. Too loud? Pfffffttttt, please, I want all these buggers to wake up a bit!!!! Bring it on! Some old farts said that it was, in fact, too loud, but what can you expect from them. They should just switch off their hearing aids.

If they start playing more of that kak like Nelly Retardo, Timberfake and that other penis Justin (thanks Sam), then thats it, Im done with listening to radio. That was the reason I stopped listening to 5fm and switched to UJfm. I cant stand the crap that 5fm churns out. You call that music? At least UJfm plays good South African music like iNeRsHa, Knave, The Narrow and of course, Chromium. Not to mention, kickass tracks from the likes of Slipknot, Korn, Trivium, Iron Maiden and so much more. Yes, sometimes their playlist goes a bit nuts and plays annoying music from Lady Sovereign (AAAHHHHHH!!!!!) but then I just block my ears and think of tequila.

I just think we need a solid rock radio station, purely for us die-hard rock fans. The other genres get catered for, so why cant we? Dammit!

A wise man once said (and still says): "If its too loud, you are TOO OLD!"

Bierfest 2007 - best by far

2007-05-14T02:25:00.000-07:00

I think this year’s German School Bierfest will go down as the best one we have had yet. We had some good laughs with good friends, with plenty of beer. We decided to get there early yesterday morning to we could get a good table and just park there for the rest of the day. We picked the Castle tent (even though I hate Castle) as it was near the stage and the biggest tent of all.

Ferdi, Weasel, Shawn and I met up with Ingrid, Rudi, Ulrike and Uwe over there and set up two tables under the hot sun. The garden umbrellas that were there did not provide us with enough shade so we moved the tables and benches inside the tent, and got a better view of the TV screens so we could watch the Super 14 semi-finals later.

The beer flowed and I happily snapped away with my camera. We soon learnt that it wasn’t safe to leave our belongings (especially my camera) with Ferdi when going on toilet breaks. I have now thousands of pictures of the fat bugger trying on all the girls jerseys. Needless to say, mine went straight to the laundry basket.

Soon we managed to collect several beer cups which kept our boys entertained while they built towers and pyramids on the table. Boys will be boys. Ferdi made more BFFs, by handing out necklaces to Ingrid (finally), Uwe, some of Ingrid’s friends, and other random girls that passed by. Somewhere in the tent, I spotted the new guitarist from Inersha, Colin, so I sent Ferdi to give him a new BFF as well. The poor guy didn’t have a clue as to what was potting. I was almost on the floor from laughing so much.

I was quite happy that there was a Jagermeister tent as well, so I indulged in a few shots plus a Jagerbomb, and kept the test tubes in which they came, haha. For the first round, Rudi accompanied me. On our way back, Mafikizolo was on stage, and we must have been very drunk cause I realised that they were singing one of their popular songs that always gets played at work functions, so Rudi and I joined the crowd and did the “Bart dance” with them. Hilarious, two whiteys trying to keep up with everyone.

Just when the first Super 14 game was about to start, and the most important, as most of us support the Sharks, the TV screens went dead. Apparently the generator had blown. So we decided to leave the Castle tent and see if the TV were working in the others. A few went ahead to check while the rest of us watched a bit of Evolver. But I just wasn’t in the mood to watch, I wanted to watch the rugby. Unfortunately, the other beer tents were packed with people as they all flocked there to watch the rugby.

While we pondered what to do next, Rudi decided to run down a slope instead of going down the stairs. The bugger fell and hurt his knee. He had a deep gash, blood running down his leg, so we dragged him to the emergency tent to get him cleaned up. While we waited, I bumped into Shadley, my “evil son” and his girlfriend and had long drunken chat with them. I was slurring big time, but I think I managed to hold a conversation, haha. By then Weasel looked green and passed out on a bench outside. Ferdi laughed at him and took pics – payback for all the times he let me and Ferdi have it for getting horribly drunk. And what’s even more funny was that Ferdi and I managed to hold our liquor.

Unfortunately Rudi had to be taken to the hospital for stitches so our fun at the beerfest quickly came to an end. Ingrid went with him in the ambulance and while Ferdi and Shawn took Weasel home, the rest of us went to have another Jagermeister and planned to meet together afterwards at the Dros for more drinks. Uli was nervous about having to drive Rudi’s car so I offered to go with her and pick Rudi and Ingrid up at Olivedale Clinic (to this day, that place still gives me the shivers). At the parking lot, his car alarm went off and we couldn’t figure out how to switch it off. The security guys came to check and Uli was more frantic than ever. I was forced to sober up rapidly and phoned Rudi for instructions. After all that was sorted, we got in the car and drove off into traffic madness. I managed to calm Uli down but I could see she was not happy.

After we picked them up, we met Ferdi and Shawn at the Dros but it was closed. Uwe and his friend were at another Dros in Northriding, so after much shouting and arguing, getting lost and me being way too calm and happy, we finally met at the right Dros, sat down and chilled. After recounting all our stories with more drinks, we all had a good laugh about the day’s dramatic events. What a night!

I had promised Berny a drunken phone call (damn, she had missed out) and provided her with lots of giggles while I hiccupped every 5 seconds. Eventually we were cut off when my battery died. I was feeling a bit peckish after all the beer so I begged everyone to go to McDonalds. And that’s where the evening finally ended. If this Bierfest was so much fun, I certainly cant wait for my church’s one in September! Hahaha.

Oh and look what Ferdi chased and caught. Lol

An Unromantic dinner by candlelight

2007-05-10T10:58:00.000-07:00

With my family. Nuff said.

When I got home yesterday I was dismayed to find out that we had no water or electricity at all. I started to panic as I realised just how much this would ruin my entire evening: I would not be able to shower, no warm food, no water to drink, no TV (hell no “War at Home” and no “My Name is Earl”!!!!). CRISIS!

As winter is almost among us, it got dark very quickly. There was nothing I could do in the pitch dark but lie on my couch and sulk, maybe chat a bit on the phone, at least some bit of technology that worked! Its amazing how much we rely on electricity and running water. Without it, we cease to function, due to pure laziness and custom. I cannot imagine what it was like to live on this planet 100 years ago!

So we put on some candles, my mother cooked some sausages on a gas heater and we ate in silence with the glow of some very weak and unromantic candles. The scene was actually kind of funny. I couldn’t help and laugh at the situation. Better than to cry.

I phoned Inki, my saviour and little sister I wish I had, to ask her to allow me to use her wonderful shower that I so badly craved. Of course, she obliged so Ferdi and I raced over there after supper. By then, of all wonderful miracles, the lights came on and one crisis was averted, we could still watch all our favourite shows, or rather, record them. Still no water.

At Inki’s, the shower felt like heaven and it was a huge relief. I hate going to bed dirty (unless of course, Im all partied out and too drunk too care, haha). We sat and chatted for a bit afterwards then I forced Ferdi to tear himself apart from Basti and take me home.

Back at home, the situation got even more ironic. Apparently, just after I had left, the water had come back on. Murphy’s law, innit?

I just don’t want to have to go through this again, eskom or whoever the hell was responsible better get their act together. Worry lines make me unattractive, lol.

Fat Eye Returns!!!

2007-05-08T04:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I have been lazy and havent posted the Fat One's Fat Stuff, so here is this week's edition:

Goodness gracious me, this was truly the greatest weekend of sport EVER! Ok sure the Lions lost, and Chelsea managed a late equalizer at Arsenal, but none of that really matters as Man United won the league and the Bulls and the Sharks topped the log in the Super 14 almost ensuring that the final will be played in SA for the first time, and dare I say it the cup will be coming home?

So its official this was the best weekend of sport, and it can only be rivaled by next weekend when the two semi finals played! Here the Bulls and the Sharks can ensure a SA victory by setting up the first all African final! The week after that could also be a beautiful moment as the Super 14 final is played and Man United takes on Chelsea in the FA Cup final! This is the stuff dreams are made of (man I get so emotional these days), and to think that we still got the tri-nations and the World Cup to get through!

This weekend started out in the bestest possible manner with the Crusaders going down in a blaze of poo, opening the door for the Sharks and giving the Bulls what at the time seemed like an unlikely shot at a home semi! This was made even more unlikely when the Blues who had a better point’s difference smacked the Western Force, which involved a massive refereeing blunder by an Aussie ref nogal! So thanks to that nob the Blues were gifted 5 points and it seemed that the curse would continue as the Bulls were almost certain to play the Sharks in the semi creating a real f*ckfest!

But then queue the Reds! The worst “team” ever! They came, they saw, they got ass raped! After the game the Reds captain Croft was speechless, his butt ached and he had no recollection of what just happened! All he knew was that somehow he was now pregnant with a little ducthman inside of him and that fact that he had a strange craving for pickles and a polony sandwich!

What had happened was that the Bulls absolutely fabulously annihilated them with the score reading 92-3! That ladies and germs is the record breaking victory margin for any Super rugby game!

In the soccer however it was a different story. Man United were well on their way to the title! Man City are a bunch of talentless losers! Man U played soccer and Man City cried like girls and eventually the good guys came out in front just like on ‘em cowboy movies! So there it was Chelsea no had to thump Arsenal (I know their name sounds funny, but that’s a story for another time) to set up an unlikely victory! But in truth Man United were never in doubt, Chelsea just aren’t good enough! All one has to do is compare the managers to see why Chelsea suck ass! Because Jose Mourinho sucks ass, literally so! Some say that his lips are permanently stuck to Roman Abramovich’s ass!

So Man United are the champions once again, and where they belong! West Ham have basically survived relegation, Sunderland have won the Championship and secured promotion to the big leagues and The Sharks are well on their way to becoming the first SA team to win the Super 14, what more could a girl ask for? Till next week, keep them fingers crossed!

A Bavarian Feast

2007-05-07T04:49:00.000-07:00

This Saturday we decided to support our sister church in Randburg who hosted a Bavarian-style dinner. And yes, there was booze. There is always booze at our churches, haha. Dress code was supposed to be lederhosen and diendels (spelling?), but since most of us wouldn’t be seen dead in those, we went in our regular jeans and jerseys. We are just too cool for that, lol.

As soon as we arrived with our folks, we were met by some crazy Germans dressed in their gear. I managed to sidetrack them and moved to our gang’s table – Uli, Inki, Renate and co were already there. We paid our entrance fee, which included the meal and a drink, and engaged in mindless conversation while the German dancers entertained us with some folk dancing. Some of these dances are hilarious and Im afraid to admit that I have partaken in some in the past, and actually enjoyed them!

I was glad to see Sonja arrive soon after. We were trying to figure out when was the last time we saw each other. She hadn’t even seen my new haircut yet. Neither of us wanted to admit that we last saw each other at my birthday party. That was in January!!!!

The food turned out to be nice – my favourite German dish: bockwurst with potato salad. We even managed to get seconds so I was quite satisfied. In less than an hour our table was filled with beer bottles. Not wanting to look like a drunk, most of us pushed the empty bottles closer to Basti, the youngest of us all.

After dinner we got a tad bored so Uli, Sonja and I sneaked outside for one of our cherry cigar escapades. We didn’t want our parents to see (look at us, we are all over 21 and we are still afraid of our parents!!!) so we hid in a dark spot behind the church, each armed with a beer bottle, and inhaled the sweet aromas of the cherry cigar. I apologise for the poor quality of the pics, but I was too scared to take my camera with so as not to look too suspicious. These cellphone pics will have to do, lol:

We had a nice girl chat then stood a while longer in the cold to get rid of the smell from our bodies. We didn’t even have time to go back in – our families were ready to leave. Looks like the evening wasn’t as fun as we expected it to be but at least it was nice to see some of my friends again. I went back home with my brothers, and since the night was still young, we watched “Green Street Hooligans” that we had recorded the previous night. Awesome movie.

So the evening wasn’t in the calibre of Edelweiss, but as long as there is good food and beer, who cares where it is!!