whats hot | whats not

Do you know what is hot about Durban right now? There are plans to expand on the cities current internal network so that is available to everyone. We're talking local calls for almost nothing and broadband for about R150 per month. Yes, we STILL don't have a waterfront (they passé, check out Randburg these days…) and someones palm is probably getting seriously greased, but I don't care. They are currently tendering the setting up of the infrastructure, and hope to get started by June. This is the best idea I've ever heard and will helpfully change help change the fishing village mentality we have in these here parts. Fibre optics here we come…

And not so hot. Okay so a few major roads and highways have had there names changed recently. Stanger Street is now Stalwart Simelane for example. Cool. But they have recently published a list of further proposed name changes. Now these have been put forward by the public, and as per usual, majority of Durban did not participate. In fact, it turns out that of over 200 possible changes, 100 were suggested by ONE individual. Clever for that person, but not really fair. Some charmers include changing Moore Road to Che Guevara and Kensington Drive to Fidel Castro. The majority of the changes are people I presume played a part in the struggle. You can only imagine the controversy this has started…

rome ii

Okay fans, Rome season 2 starts this sunday, so get the popcorn ready. My boss was kind enough to share his copy of season 1 and I am busy catching up the episodes I missed. Which is actually half the friggin season. And girls if you haven't seen it and don't know who Marc Antony is, do yourself a favour.

24 - part 1

What an insane 24 hours I had this weekend. I ended up at the Quiksilver Pro party at Tilt on Friday night. Now we all know how much I love Tilt (woo hoo! house music!) and surfers (the EX has put me off for life). But nevertheless I had a rip roaring time, besides the 14 year old tarts and the hardcore R&B music. We were strategically seating at a really good part of the bar, and so were able to accost many surfers against their will. They had to be nice if they wanted a drink. I had good fun in telling them that I know nothing about surfing and so have never heard of them before, but they must be careful as there is 'something' in the water.
Interesting moments include some surfer from down under ripping off MY accent. He said I have a TWANG, and then proceeded to mimic my voice exactly. An aussie! And then his underage friend ripped off my zulu teething beads. Nice one. Next I had 2 short brazilians harassing me. I was 'treated' to an impromptu dance which included a bit of shirt lifting, with him rubbing his 6 pack shouting, 'Looook at mee, I am perfeeek!' I nearly peed in my pants laughing. There was a general agreement later that the brazilians are nuts (?).
Other entertainment included chatting to Farryl Purkiss (shame, he's thin) and pretending I had never heard of him before. I warned that the music industry is tough, and he should have something to fall back on. I suggested crocheting as is can be very rewarding. He was a good sport, though he couldn't seem to get away fast enough. Ha!
Shortly after I somehow ended up chatting to this photographer from a mag, and he was explaining how to use the flash cleverly (I don't remember anything he explained) and somehow ended up doing a spur of the moment photoshoot. It seemed like a really great idea at the time, but I have feeling those pics are gonna sneak up on me when I least expect it. I will never be President.
By then it was about 3 o'clock and my older sister wanted to leave. So we go all the way to the bluff, and stop off at my sisters fave jol, Zappa Bar. It took about 5 minutes for my younger sis and I to realise that we were having more fun at Tilt and we decided to head back. Yes, it made perfect sense at the time.
So we get back to Tilt and it is EMPTY. Practically everyone had left. So the logical thing to do was go have another drink. We eventually got home at about 5am, which is the same time my mother leaves for her saturday morning walk. She was SO pleased to see us.

to be continued…

24 - part 2

Okay so I'm in bed by 5am, and I have a laser appointment at 7.30am. Of course I wake up at 8am. Luckily the lady managed to fit me in as she had cancellations. Funny, she always seem to have cancellations… but that's another story. We figured out the scabs that took a week to go away last time was NOT normal and it ISN'T supposed to be that painful. I get lasered at a safe level this time and finish up there at 9am. I have an hour to kill before I meet friends for brunch, so naturally I parked my car at the Pick n Pay next door and have a half hour kip to give me the strength to drive to Morningside. The morning shoppers were seriously checking me out
Brunch was good fun. My mate Kamlan has just married his oirish man and so we got meet him. I don't think brunch is supposed to last 6 hours but we have a way of doing that. Brendy was sitting opposite me, and I he was KILLING with the commentary, I honestly haven't laughed that much in ages. I wish I could remember some of the crackers, but by that stage I wasn't capable of coherent speech. I had a yummy scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, that looked like a small portion but was in fact a black hole of neverending eggs. By lunch time we had declared brunch as the unofficial wedding reception and were drinking pink champagne. I actually amazed myself at my stamina.
You could tell we were a bunch of techno geeks though - there were about 2 SLR's on the table and we amused ourselves by taking photos of each others crotches and nostrils and stuff. REALLY funny at the time. I think I got home 3ish (or was it 4ish?) and had 2 disprins and a good kip. I dreamt of surfers and white wine spritzers.
I woke up at about 7ish and went and got a pizza filla from debonairs. Oooh. Just what I needed. And even better the next day…

One hangover fixer please…

there are even stranger pics on my flickr…

Mmm… cold pizza

Hooray Hooray It's A Holi-Holiday

Guess what a colleague of mine pulled out of her music collection? Boney M! Lordy, I had NO idea that sang so many recognisable songs. We have been blasting it all afternoon, I'm loving it, perfect for a slightly crazy friday.
We have decided they are the black hippy german version of Abba.

[singly loudly, slightly off key]
RAAA RAAA RASPUTIN! NAA NA NA, NA NA NA…

today

Today would have been my dads 59th birthday. I really miss him, but its good to get a chance to remember him.

Dad loved:

fishing :: biltong :: sky news :: kom terug wors :: wildlife docs :: football :: london :: cranberry cooler :: amstel :: bells whisky :: tea :: watering his ferns :: a good laugh :: man utd :: cave rock :: horse racing :: his grandkids :: curry :: boyzone tunes :: santana :: pringle clothing :: adidas trainers :: cape town :: leon schuster movies :: the evening news :: his indian ringnecks

Dad was not crazy about:

chipboard :: sweetcorn :: pea soup :: undercooked meat :: flies :: owls :: rap music :: menthol lozenges :: laziness :: 'far fetched' science fiction movies :: hospitals :: ventilators :: dust :: claustrophobia :: his sister nelly :: bouncer howling at the hadedas :: monkeys stealing our pawpaws ::

its only words

These are from the french publication Art & Décoration. I love the idea of using letters as art slash decor slash ornamentation. So cool. Can I have a Still life with Ass and Alphabet?

workstation 101

The tidiest part of my desk. I dunno why the camera made my pinboard look bent. Weird.

take me drunk I'm home…

Okay so I gave up the old alcohooly for 40 days. It was hard at first, but thats just force of habit. I think that is always the biggest eye opener for me, how the daily glass of wine becomes a habit. Just having some wine for the sake of it. So I stopped, and found myself pigging out on junk food initially to compensate. Its easy to replace one bad habit for another - I even started craving cigarettes! But it was a good lesson in self control, and I've learnt that alcohol is nice, but it doesn't guarantee you a good time. Having fun is a CHOICE.

Other useful lessons…

- I can sing karaoke and dance and have fun sober. Alcohol doesn't give me any more confidence than usual. It just makes you care less. The fun is different, but fun is possible.

- The whole self-loathing that I experience after a night of drinking and regretting opening my big mouth and other ugliness is not restricted to drinking. I went to a party sober, yet leaving, there was that familiar feeling again. I can acknowledge that alcohol is not to blame for my nasty gossiping and ugliness. The motormouth can be set off without alcohol. So by deduction, I don't like MYSELF. I don't like who I am socially. I am so centred on my own issues that I don't really just let go and HAVE FUN. I needed to learn to chill - splashy took care of that.

- I can now have one drink and be satisfied. I'm not against drinking, but my approach is a little more moderate now.

I think it is good to fast in some way or form during the year, you learn a lot about yourself and the things that have you under their control. You realise that you are stronger than you thought.

cute AND evil

Okay so you got a pile of old punk/heavy metal/whatever t-shirts lying around… whaddya do with them? Get your own customised friggin evil punk quilt made with them!

Boo Davis is a designer, illustrator and quiltmaker living in Seattle. She spent much of her youth cozied up under her grandmother's quilt listening to Ozzy. As a grown-up metalhead and design geek, the intersection of cute and evil is what she finds most compelling. Applying a heavy metal spin to the traditional craft of quilting seemed like a natural merging of her two great loves.

Hmmm, something to snuggle under next Splashy…

practise makes perfect

A few more attempts and now my granny squares are starting to look square. I've figured out my tension issues, gone up to the biggest hook I have to loosen things up a bit. I have also been experimenting with daisies and last night I made a different extra fluffy one. I'm still struggling a bit following new patterns, it takes me a few tries before I figure out, 'oh, thats where its supposed to go!' I'm starting to understand my mom's advice of, 'just stick the hook in anywhere, it'll be fine…'
I think I'm on track to treat myself to some purdy wool and embark on my granny square journey.

taste

I have followed TASTE magazine since its inception and generally am more than impressed by the beautiful styling and inspiration.
I stayed loyal when things starting going a bit pear (about a year ago more or less) really unappetising food styling, cluttered layouts and cheesy themey type (chinese food? lets use a tong lok takeaway menu font!). But the latest issue takes the cake. Photography and styling and back on par, but someone has taken to using American Uncial (!) throughout the mag! Either they completely do not GET the visual aesthetic of the magazine or they have really bad taste, or both. I mean, a serif typeface based on old school (not in the good way) calligraphy. Sies! Sans serif or NOTHING I say.

Excuse me. That was my rant for the day.

gallivanting

Yesterday morning a colleague and I flew out to Joburg for a recce. We had to go take pics for a clients activation. Sounds fun-ish doesn't it? By the end of the day we were finished.
The first mission was driving out to Pretoria, I as always, was the trusty navigator. We found the Union buildings by accident, which was pretty cool to see. Then we made our way to Hatfield, and managed to find the News Cafe by sheer luck. Flippin heck there are a lot of car dealerships in Joburg. From there to Menlyn. Our next brief which we have now realised was a little bit of miscommunication was, 'take pics of Rivonia Road'. How long is a piece of string? How long is Rivonia Road? Well after a couple phone calls, we figured out we needed to be in the vicinity of Teazers, and that made asking for directions a lot easier.
By the time we hit Melrose Arch I was finished. Beautiful area though, reminded me a little of Covent Garden. I loved the mosaics at Moyo. We had a brush with fame as we were walking past Mark Gold, my friend saw Danny K and turned to point him out to me. At the same time he saw my slr and kinda brushed himself off, preparing to meet some fans and be photographed. But we just walked straight past. Poor sucker. Danny K is one of the biggest jokes in our office since a friend spotted him in Topshop Oxford Street digging through the bargain bins. Hilirious.
My highlight of the day was stopping at Seattle Coffee Company to grab a decaf soy latté. That place is a little piece of coffee culture heaven. I think I want to quit me day job and make foam all day…

Splashy Fen

So I left work on Wednesday night and I was completely frazzled. I think my body knew I had taken a days leave and decided to fall apart. A cold sore, dark rings under my eyes, and unable to form a coherent sentence. So much for going absolutely mental at Splashy…
But I had a cool time, the rain did kinda put a 'damper' on things, but it was still good fun. It took me a good 2 days to unwind properly though. That was such a wake up call for me though, life happens and we get older and we get hard and we take ourselves too seriously. We forget how to just CHILL, to relax completely and have no worries. To just have a laugh. I really gonna try not let the stresses of life and work bog me down in future. Life is too short, and I'm gonna take it easy…

Some of the highlights of my weekend:
• black label draught
• undone - from grahamstown, cool jazzy sound
• la cobra - the bits I can remember
• wood fire (or was it gas fire?) pizza
• hot showers
• being smug in the mud with my gumboots
• duskant ombliksem - friggin hilirious, "I can be your batman baby…"
• the parlotones - fun, but over too quickly
• someone taking a dump in our noisy unhappy camper neighbours tent

If anything else interesting happened, send me a mail cos I don't remember a helluva lot…

BTW check out isolation.tv if you have a spare moment, it's my friends music review blog. He's written a review. Also check out durbanscouts review…


Here are some of my pics… the rest are on my flickr account.

We had some bee-ootiful weather in the evenings…

Gratuitious half naked blonde rocker pic

Schweet…

Check out my sexy pins. Control yourself guys…

this weekend

What else did I do this weekend besides crochet? Well, my brother and family are here for the mom-in-laws 60th and Lily's 2nd birthday. We babysat Lil on saturday while they set up for the big 60th party. The party was cool, they went to a lot of trouble to make it a big surprise. It was good fun, the oldies were LOVING all the Neil Diamond. Lily was loving it, tons of people and dancing, she was in her element. My sober self was not really in the mood to party, I think my mom did more dancing than me!
Sunday I chilled out some more, did a bit of pre-splashy suntanning and dug up the garden a bit…

Cafe Dulce was a hit with the kids…

Lulu has taken over my flower beds, the mondo grass is now her throne.

granny problems

Trying to follow a pattern when you are new to crocheting can be a serious case of trial and error. I figured that out trying to make my first granny square. The first couple were really way out. I was hooking into the chain instead of the hole… took a couple tries and then I eventually figured out what I was doing. But I completed my first square, woo hoo, I just need to relook all my loose ends. I don't want to crochet an entire blanket for it to end up unravelling…