What Became of this Little Ball of Emotion

I feel like I left the blogging community for so long that it has isolated me. Blogger confirmed that by asking me for my password when I logged it, which it never does. So thanks for THAT vote of confidence!

I'm a little ball of emotions today (the little voice in my head is asking me when I'm ever not a little ball of emotions, and in response, I say "shut up"). I'm seeing my hunk of a lover this weekend (hi boyfriend) so the butterflies are beginning their descent even though I'm only seeing him on Saturday. I'm stressed because I'm hosting something at my house on Saturday for a friend's eighteenth. I can't say what (yet) as it is a surprise, but as soon as the weekend is over I will reveal all! Last, but not least, I cried at school today (yes - at school) because I wrote an essay that got me all emotional. I wanted to share it with my adoring fans. **bows**. Just kidding - hi mom.

What the elephant in the room should have kept to itself

It couldn't have been more than eight years ago - a split second in cosmic time - but it truly feels so long ago that I wouldn't be surprised if such a time in my life existed simultaneously with Adam and Eve.

It was a frequent occurrence in my life: days spent at my grandparents house. I loved everything about them and their ivory-walled mansion on Glenwood Drive. I loved that the little fence that stood, taller than me at that point in time, and guarded our property from all sides, was lined with jasmine which you could smell as soon as you turned into the driveway. I loved that it didn't have an electric gate like most houses now, and then, but instead, a two-doored rusty-hinged gate that was locked shut with a padlock every night, the moment the sun set. I loved that the same troop of dogs always greeted me with their familiar wet noses. I loved that my granny always made the best food no matter what meal of the day it was. I loved that the house always seemed to grow secret passages in preparation for my next visit. My absolute favourite thing was that the house never had a dull moment. It was always filled with happy family members, good food and more love than most people know in a lifetime.

On my return to my childhood home, I'm not pleased with how it makes me feel: old. There are no more wet-nosed happy-tailed dogs - not even one. Neither of my grandparents are standing at the front door to see their grandchildren into their home. The pool that my whole family used to spend hours in is now green from neglect ion. The corridors are empty and even the jasmine is gone.

I suppose it was always there - the inevitable. It was in every corner of every warm room. It was there, watching us as our family of eight - sometimes more, depending on who was visiting that weekend - sat around the dinner table with full stomachs and happy hearts. It was with us on our adventures into the secret passageways and into the forest-like garden at the bottom of the house. It was the elephant in the room; the unopened letter on the counter.

Thus far, I have had the most spectacular life and I don't hesitate in thinking that it is going to get even better, but there is nothing I would give up these memories for and, if I could, nothing would stop me from reversing time and replaying the first ten years of my life until I'm too happy to remember how to miss something this much.

9GAG, Idols and Living Life One Item at a Time

School started today - big life-stifling bleb. Cue my rose-colored glasses: on the bright side, it was my very last first-day of high school. Ever. Cue beer-goggles.

I have some great stuff for your guys - entertaining, even!

I found this video on 9GAG the other night (I know, don't give me that look. I have a problem. It's almost as big as the current obsession I have with Brickbreaker. Must. Reach. Level. Twenty. Three.).  I thought it was awesome because, really, when we're honest with ourselves, who hasn't done this?!

The second video I have for you guys, and the one I'm bursting at my seams to share is my friend Dominic Neill's audition video for Idols South Africa. In recent news, he has made it to the Top 18 contestants. I can't (can't... or won't) tell you how many times I've watched his audition video, but he just has this style that I can't say I've seen in anyone else. This is a fairly popular song, but he performs it with such enthusiasm, rhythm, passion and with a truly South Africa heart, that I'm sure no one else has even considered such a cover before.

In my personal news - I was able to cross off the sixtieth item on my Life List  this weekend - bartend! I snatched up the opportunity to get a job at the club myself and my friends often find ourselves at, and my first working night was on Friday! I can't tell you how much I enjoyed it - it was too sick - and I feel edgy using such a colloquial word on my blog but, really, nothing else will fully describe it. I loved the vibe from behind the bar, I loved serving the drinks and I loved that my friends sat at the bar forcing everyone who bought from me to give me a tip (thanks guys **wink wink**). I do have the best friends. I'm working again this weekend. Oh, and, plus, I'm earning a fair amount of money. It's a students life!

Stroke Identification

If I had a million lives to live, I would definitely choose to be a doctor at some point. However, I highly doubt that life works that way and so, I introduce to you:



"STROKE IDENTIFICATION:
During a party, a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine and just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. (they offered to call ambulance)

They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food - while she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening. Ingrid’s husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6:00pm , Ingrid passed away.)
She had suffered a stroke at the party . Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today.

Some don’t die. They end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead. It only takes a minute to read this…

STROKE IDENTIFICATION:

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke…totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE

Remember the first three letters of "Stroke", S, T, and R, these are the three steps. Read and Learn!
Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster.
The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.
Now, doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions :

S * Ask the individual to SMILE ..
T * = TALK. Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (eg ‘It is sunny out today’).
R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS .

If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call the ambulance and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

NOTE : Another ‘sign’ of a stroke is
1. Ask the person to ‘stick’ out their tongue.
2. If the tongue is ‘crooked’, if it goes to one side or the other that is also an indication of a stroke.

A prominent cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved.

And it could be your own."

Blogger Catch Up

WARNING: This is going to be quite a heavy post... (don't let that put you off though)


Before I start my ramblings, I have to share this video with you. It's a talk called Everything Is Spiritual by Rob Bell. I'm not the world's most spiritual person. I don't go to church. I have my doubts about the bible, but I do believe there is a higher power. Even if you aren't spiritual, this is still an incredible video to watch and will make you question and think about so much.


Right! As I have mentioned rather briefly in the past couple of posts, I have been out and about and doing all sorts of things. I haven't had the time to sit down and write about them, but I arrived back in Joburg yesterday, from a holiday in Cape Town (mini-edition) and I can finally put my fingers to my keyboard.

With regard to my most embarrassing moment that I mentioned in my last post, about the post before that (still with me?) - there was no football match between Germany and Portugal to determine third place in the Euro Cup. I thought about editing the post and erasing that little mistake, but I thought, instead, we could all have a laugh here. BUT, if there was a match, I think it's safe to say Germany would have come out on top.

The Lion and Rhino Park story (before, I said the Lion and Cheetah Park - I'm not doing too well, am I? Perhaps there was a Lion and Cheetah Park in Zim. I don't know how else I would have gotten myself confused. Let's bow our heads and hope for better days in my future.)

Anyway - it was such an amazing weekend, and I love to do something different now and then. It was incredibly hot the entire weekend (save the evening, of course...) and I only packed warm clothes since it is freezing here in J-Town. We had to make do with rolling up our long pants and keeping our jersey's far away from us. There was a game drive (our own personal game drive, mind you, which turned out to be much better than a professional one), a jacuzzi session which lasted a few hours, a game of 30 seconds (my group and myself proved ourselves champions), a quiz on the birthday girl and a fire outside.

The next morning we went to look at the animals as well as played with lion cubs! I cannot tell you how much I want one - that was inevitably going to happen, was it not?

 The picture above is meant to be of a civet cat, but I just googled a civet cat, and it has given me pictures of animals which resemble the animal above, but cross a mongoose, or something of the likes, so I will leave that to your imagination. Go wild.

Hippo's bathing in the sun!

Having a wash.

I spent my last day in J-town on my project for my boyfriend's birthday. I've been wanting to talk about this for so long, and now that he finally knows what is going on, I can!

I started on this present in May. I contacted very many of the people in Johnathan's life, and I asked them to send me a memory they have had with him. I asked his family, his Joburg friends, his Cape Town friends, my family and my friends. Some people gave me one big memory, and others gave me many small memories. I then divided the memories up and put them into eighteen separate envelopes, in order to give him one a day, starting eighteen days before his eighteenth birthday (July 25th). What you see in the pictures below, are my memories. I cut eighteen pieces of black card, selected eighteen of my favourite photos of him and I, numbered the cards, and on the back in silver pen I wrote a memory I've had with Johno.

Here are some of the front of some of the cards...

These are some of the printed memories, before the scissors and glue...

When I arrived in Cape Town on Thursday morning, Johno gave me my presents from Europe, and I couldn't hold it in any longer and I just had to give him one of the envelopes early. He loved it, and on my last day with him he ended up opening all eight of the envelopes I had brought with me. Oops...

He then went through his old school magazine, finding more people I could ask (teeheehee!). So I'd say he loved the present.

Much to my annoyance, I didn't take many photo's of my holiday (mini-edition) at all. I did take one photo though, that I thought was quite funny. A typical male grocery shop...

My sister arrived back from Europe while I was away in Cape Town, and so I hadn't seen her for 3 weeks until last night. She gave me the presents she bought me while she was away. I was completely spoilt.

A miniature mirror from Paris.

Shot glasses from Berlin.

A miniature hubby from Istanbul.

A rosary from Rome. 

The rosary smells of Jasmine, and my sister told me that it is from the Jasmine that is grown in the Vatican gardens. Beautiful, no?

I'm back in business!

The Past Few Days: Without Details

You cannot believe what an awesome weekend I had (and yes, I know it is now Wednesday) as well as the last couple of days - and without alcohol! Okay, I'm not an alcoholic or anything. No seriously - I'm not, but I've been under the weather lately and because I am leaving to Cape Town tomorrow to visit my boyfriend, I wanted to get better and decided not to drink even when I went out into a drinking atmosphere. Ya huh.

Just a quick overview: I went to the Lion and Rhino park from Saturday to Sunday with a group of friends for an eighteenth; I went out to watch the finals for the Euro Cup on Sunday evening; I went to a French cafe with my family on Monday morning - there was nothing about it that wasn't absolutely French; I went shopping at Sandton and had a sushi date with my mom after the cafe; I had a photo shoot with a photographer-friend, after the Sandton date, for pictures for my new header (thus my reason for the temporary replacement of my header...); I went to a get together with my ladies that evening (introductory statement to the Bad Bitches...); I went to another session of boot camp yesterday morning (I'm feeling it today and I have to go for another session just now); and I spent the rest of the day putting together a surprise present(s) for my boyfriend for  his birthday which I can post about next week after I have started giving them to him!

Today I have boot camp, pampering at Sorbert, a date with a dress-maker for my Matric Dance and an eighteenth tonight that I - unfortunately - cannot stay long at because my flight tomorrow leaves at six am.

I promise to post all the details next week when I get back to Joburg! Oh - and I am also to speak about my most embarrassing moment concerning my last post...

Until then. X

Happy Independence Day, America!

P.S. One day I will spend a fourth of July in America.