Tag Archives: Siv Ngesi

My Biggest Baddest Bucket List entry

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My long weekend’s been totally consumed with working feverishly to get my entry for My Destination’s Biggest Baddest Bucket List competition in before the deadline which was at midnight GMT yesterday (that’s 2am this morning SA time)… I luckily got it in with about 30min to spare… sjoe…

Why so last minute?  Unfortunately I only recently learnt about it and entry was quite tough.  You had to do the following:

  • A 3min travel video on your favourite destination (with you in it – talking, presenting, etc)
  • A 500 word blog post about your most memorable travel story (including some pics)

And what would this get you?  Well the winner will walk away with a all expenses paid 6 month trip around the world!  Plus, when you get back home, they’re sweetening the deal even further with a $50,000.00 cash prize.  Incredible right?

The winner will need to blog, tweet, upload videos and make a lot of noise along the way, which is pretty much what I do on a daily basis already.  So right up my alley that.  AND I’m planning a 6 month sabbatical this year in any case.  So if that’s not fate, I don’t know. ;) Those who know me well will also tell you that if you asked me what my dream job would be, I’d always answer “travel show presenter”…

They are going to announce the top 10 on 15 April.  5 of the top ten will be based on votes, which means the folks who’ve known about the competition for a while and got their entries in well in advance definitely have the upper hand as they’ve had the time to rustle up votes.  I’m re-e-e-e-al-ly hoping my entry is awesome enough to make it into the other 5 spots.  So please hold thumbs, cross toes, whatever you can!  I need all the positive energy I can get.

Anyways, entries as I mentioned have closed.  And I see they’ve closed the voting too (which I’m very bummed about, was hoping they’d give those last minute stragglers a bit more time), but you can still check out my entry video.  I chose Cape Town as my destination (of course).

And the rest of my entry (i.e. the blog post, my pics, etc) you can check out over here.

I can tell you one thing, I had to do some brutal editing to get down to a 3min video only. Cape Town’s just so freakin’ awesome and I had so much great footage, it was a real challenge to show enough and also work in talking bits and show my personality and and and…  but I think the final product turned out to be quite fun.  Which was my goal.  I have to say a special thank you to everyone at the V&A Market on the Wharf who was willing to play along and also to Adam (the mixologist with all the flair) and the rest of the team at Orphanage for letting me invade their beautiful cocktail emporium.  Oh and also to Siv! For being my scooter stunt man.  And last but certainly not least, the BF (Bjorn) for helping with some of the filming & showing me how to use iMovie.  Much love to all.

It’s going to be a very tense 2 weeks, that I can tell you.  I don’t know if my heart’s gonna handle.  This would be a HUGE dream come true for sure…

xxx

Lots of fun with the Veuve Clicquot Masters Polo

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This year’s Veuve Clicquot Masters Polo event at the beautiful Val de Vie estate just outside Paarl certainly did not disappoint. (But I knew it wouldn’t!)  No expense was spared to put on a day of ultimate luxury, high fashion and regte egte French bubbly overindulgence… there’s nothing fancier than a real champagne hangover, just so you know. ;)

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DSC04702Now there were rumours going around that Ryk Neethling wasn’t actually going to be able to attend this year’s event.  But luckily that turned out to be total nonsense.  He was there, he was looking good and he was having a great time:

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I did think his interpretation of the “Whimsical chic” dress code was a little strange though… but hey, I wasn’t complaining.

Pretty soon he was just one of the gang really…

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Here with Roxanne Cloete from Fairlady and journo & celeb expert, Clayton Morar.  I dunno where my friend Siv Ngesi disappeared to in this pic. He was supposed to be there on the right. Hmmm…

We were lucky enough to be rocking the VIP area where we were totally spoilt.  Think endless, flowing Veuve Clicquot, big tables with all different kinds of cheeses, yummy charcuterie, fresh fruit and more.  Waiters walking around with trays of canapes and sweet treats.  A dieter’s nightmare basically.

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veuvefood2Oh and ice cream cones, how could I forget the ice cream cones!  Bjorn and Darryn downed these babies like naughty children who’d hijacked the ice cream truck:

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Hehe…

Clouds also got into the action and even made it look oh-so-fashionable as it kinda matched her beautiful Kobus Dippenaar dress perfectly:

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New accessory trend? I like it…

Other people on the scene included this awesome lineup of folks:

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Golden ladies on the left: actress Lee-Anne Summers & Top Billing’s Jeannie D; Always fashion perfect couple Kelly Parkhurst & Grant Paul Roy

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Luxo blog power couple – Elrico & Ritza. I just loved Ritza’s dress, especially that back. It was designed by Ricci Janse Van Rensburg from CTCFD.

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From left to right: Jen Su looking fresh in her slinky grey number and the gorgeous Natalie Becker with friend, Andrew.

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Lovely ladies, from left to right: Jasna from Fashionjazz.co.za, Expresso’s Leigh-Anne Williams & Decleor Ambassador Thandi Kupe in a striking Black Cake hat.

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Here with actor Hakeem Kae-Kazim who’s just snagged a lead role in new pirate series, Black Sails, which is being shot at the Cape Town Film Studios (you’ve also seen him in Pirates of the  Caribbean, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Hotel Rwanda) and then kykNET’s Kia Johnson who was looking striking in bright orange.

As well as designer Hendrik Vermeulen who’s partner (whom he dressed of course) was nominated for best dressed:

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Loved that pink & white combo.

And on the topic of fashion, I was totally obsessed with actor Aidan Whytock‘s sunglasses.  How cool are these??

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I so badly want a pair too…  And the glasses & bow tie combo, pure awesome.  Love a guy who’s willing to have a bit of fun with fashion.

Entertainment wise we got so check out a fashion show by Jenni Button showing some gorgeous (and I have to say somewhat daring) evening wear:

jennybuttonAs well as some great, classic silhouettes by Hilton Weiner:

DSC04724Oh yes, then of course it being a “Masters Polo” event, there was an actual polo match too:

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According to the announcer, this was very exciting match…  but I don’t know anything about the game, so won’t even attempt to comment.  All I can say is, watching horses running around with the Franschhoek mountains as their backdrop is pretty incredible.

There was also the traditional “stomping of the divots” (which always reminds me of that scene in Pretty Woman):

DSC04769But I couldn’t join in as I was a bit tied up with a “fan” at the time:

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OK OK, that was super cheesy, I know…

All ‘n all, this was a great day out with great people and I have to say a HUGE thank you to the team at Vivid Luxury for putting together such an amazing event and letting me be part of it.

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My peeps. I love them.

xxx

Anybody game for a naked bike ride?

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OK OK, get your minds out of the gutter folks… I’m not going to be kaalkat on a bicycle.  I mean jislaaik, wat sal my ma sê? ;)

I’m simply referring to the Marie Claire Naked Bike Ride happening on Mon, 25 Feb which aims to create further awareness for their March 2013 Naked Issue which this year is in support of The Organ Donor Foundation.

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On the shelves now btw…

This year’s issue features 41 SA celebs who were all photographed by heart recipient Marguerite Oelofse.  And as I mentioned above, the goal this year is to get people to give others a second chance at life by offering themselves either as an organ donor or even just making a financial donation.

I’m proud to say that I’m already a registered organ donor.  I just figured that if my time on planet earth happened to come to an end and I still had some pretty decent spare parts which could help others, how selfish would I be not to offer those up?

If you’ve always been in two minds about it, here’s some hectic facts you might not have known:

  • SA is currently in an organ donation crisis with less than 600 people receiving organs annually and close to 4 300 people losing their lives because not enough South Africans are signed up as donors.
  • The ODF needs to sign up 50 000 new organ donors this year.
  • Your heart, liver and pancreas can save 3 lives and your kidneys and lungs can help up to 4 people.  That’s up to 7 lives in total people!!

I bought my Naked Issue today and I have to say, the photos are absolutely stunningly gorgeous (I know, that’s a lot of adjectives, but it’s well deserved).  I was also super chuffed to see so many people whom I know & love.  (watch out now folks… the name dropping’s about to start :) )  First up the Cape Town crew – gorgeous Spud actress Alex McGregor, funny man Siv Ngesi and Bar-One Man Lushwill Rossouw.  Then a big up to the lovely Jozi ladies who I met at the SA Style Awards last year:  Vuzu TV’s Lalla Hirayama, actress Bonnie Henna & designer Suzaan Heyns.  Lookin’ good ladies & gents.  Oh and you also get to see Lee-Ann Liebenberg‘s beautiful little daughter, Gia…  And nooooo.  I’m not going to show you their photos.  You’re gonna have to buy the Naked Issue for yourselves OK.

For a behind the scenes look at the Naked shoot, hop on over to the Naked page on the Marie Clairvoyant site.

So how can you help?

  • First:  Become an organ donor now by signing up over here.  Remember, little ol’ you can save up to 7 people…
  • Then show up on Mon eve & join the Marie Claire team alongside the #moonlightmass crowd to show your support.  (I hear the Naked Issue celebs have also been invited to join in, so you might also be seeing some famous faces cycling away next to you)

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Date: 25 February 2013 at 20h30

Dress code: Cycle chic mixed with reflective gear (a helmet is a prerequisite)

Venue: The starting point is beneath the Green Point Circle.  See below for the route map and parking info (click on the image to get a closer view):

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Oh and if you do not own a bicycle, don’t stress.  You can book a bike at one the following outlets:

Easy peasy!  And you’ll also be multitasking like a champ cause you’ll be doing something good AND getting a bit of a workout at the same time.  How’s that…

xxx

Circus fun at the Marie Claire Loeries After party

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So last Sat eve I was lucky enough to attend the much anticipated Marie Claire Loeries after party – one of the highlights on the Creative Week calendar -  and I can guarantee you one helluva jol.  I really had no idea that advertising folks were such crazy party animals.  There was just no way I was ever going to keep up, but trust me, I gave it my best shot.

First, before I give you the nitty-gritty on the party shenanigans, remember last Fri I showed you guys piccies of some dress options by Beautiful Maverick?  Genuvieve, owner of the label, was awesome enough to give me a dress to wear for the party.  It was tough to decide, but in the end I went with a flirty little animal print number:

Ta da!  Everyone knows you have way more fun in animal print daaahling.

So dressed to impress and feelin’ ready to cause some trouble, Bjorn and I headed over to the Zip Zap Circus tent in the Foreshore -  the hot location for the evening’s events.

Partying in a circus tent? Come on, that’s pretty damn cool…

The VIP section (yup – that’s how we roll. hehe) was jam-packed with big media names, magazine people, editors, power creatives, ad folks, basically a whole bunch people I didn’t know. :)   But at least there were some familiar faces to make things a little less intimidating…

From top left:  Clouds who was also rocking a Beautiful Maverick frock, my journo/PR bud Clayton, The Boys: my boy / actor Bjorn Steinbach, comdedian / actor Siv Ngesi, Mr SA 2010 Denver Burns & The Wild actor Tyrone Keogh;  then bottom left: Kia Johnson from Expresso (met her at the Palladium Pamphair party a few days before and she’s an absolute sweetheart) and lastly a cutesy couply shot. (I know, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help myself)

Obviously being in a circus tent, there was circus awesomeness all around, including some cute ladies in some crazy getups and a kissing booth!  Ooh la-la…

We were also treated to a candy table filled with sweeties, lollipops, candy canes and everything else your heart might desire, a kick ass black & white dance floor (very fancy) and a fun photo booth.

The photo booth was actually a huge hit, especially as the cocktails started flowing and people became a little braver.  This was my favourite shot from our set:

Love it

Now talking about cocktails… the alcohol was flowing.  Ice cold Patrón was served at an actual bar made out of ice and the VIP bar was serving pretty potent Cognac coctails all night long.  This I’m calling my “collage of liquid gold”:

Hell yeah…

First we were entertained by an impressive acrobat show - another great perk of having a party in a circus tent.  The guys & girls from Zip Zap were definitely showing us how things are done…

After which Crazy White Boy took over the stage to get the crowd moving:

Everyone migrated to the dance floor and that’s pretty much where they stayed until the early hours of the morning.  No further paparazzi photography was allowed after about 10pm for safety purposes. Sorry.

We left at around 2:30 and the party was still going strong.  Like very very strong.  DJ Sox (you’ll probably know him from the Sun sessions at Cafe Caprice) was putting out a good mix of old school tunes, hip hop, dance & everything in between and those crazy advertising guys & gals were lapping it up.  From what I hear a lot of these people had been out partying pretty much for 3 days solid.  That’s impressive stuff.  I on the other hand ended up kicking off my shoes, watching an episode of So you think you can dance and passing out on the couch.  Yup, totally rockstar and stuff… ;)

xxx

Fashion lovers come out to play

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Inside The Reserve

Last Thu eve I attended the GQ & Glamour Craig Port Mercedes-Benz Cape Town Fashion week afterparty.  Sjoe, that’s a whole lotta name for a party, but then again, it was a whole lotta party. ;)

This FTV sponsored soiree took place at The Reserve in St Georges Mall, a venue which never fails to impress, and was coordinated by Jill Groger from Zebra Square, a lady who’s synonymous with top class events.

Now sadly I missed out on the Craig Port show which took place earlier that evening.  So this meant I missed out on these gorgeously fun & flirty dresses:

Photo by: Source: Simon Deiner / SDR Photo;  Source: African Fashion International (http://afi.sdr.co.za/)

And the beautiful lines of this guy’s pecs & abs swimming trunks:

Photo by: Source: Simon Deiner / SDR Photo; Source: African Fashion International (http://afi.sdr.co.za/)

And that ladies & gentlemen is why I have a passion for fashion. :)   You can check out more images from the show here.

But everyone knows it’s all about the afterparty, right?  While sipping on F Vodka cocktails and snacking on yummy canapes, I got to say hi to hunky sweetheart, Lushwill Rossouw, who’s just been announced as the Season 2 Bar-One Manhunt winner.

Lushwill is a personal trainer by profession which explains that hot bod in his Twitter profile pic (do yourselves a favour ladies and go check it out: @lushwill)

Another Bar-One Manhunt hottie on the scene was Dene Botha (who also strutted his stuff in the Craig Port show).  Here he is alongside stunning actress Alex McGregor:

Now you might not believe this, but Alex is actually the nerdy girl from the 2010 hit SA movie, Spud!  I kid you not. Check it out:

She’s certainly no nerdy girl in person, that I can guarantee you.  You’ll be seeing her again in the follow up Spud movie which starts shooting soon as well as in Confinement – a film set in German occupied France, but shot right here at our very own Cape Town Film Studios.  She plays a French girl who falls in love with a German soldier (played by my very own Bjorn Steinbach), but then her family locks her away in their basement to keep her away from him and she’s forced to escape to a fantasy world to survive… I’m really looking forward to seeing it.

Bjorn and I with another one of my favourite boys, Siv Ngesi.

Siv’s been a very busy man.  You’ll be seeing a glimpse of him in the upcoming Nelson Mandela movie, Long Walk to Freedom, he’s got a hot new stand-up show called Race Card (which should be hitting Cape Town in October) and he’s featuring alongside Rob van Vuuren in soon to be released SA movie, Copposites.

Some of the stand out fashion moments of the evening for me came from TV/Radio presenter, MC and all round fabulous lady, Jen Su:

Hot pink paired with the cutest Union Jack clutch – to celebrate the kick off of the London Olympics of course. Loved it.

And then no couple does it better than Elrico Bellingan from Luxo and his lovely girlfriend, Ritza:

Love the blue & brown statement glasses Elrico is rocking and Ritza’s look is very Victoria Beckham, so sexy.

This was such a fun night out and it certainly set the scene for the Thula Sindi & Ruald Rheeder show which I got to attend the next day.  But I’ll tell you more about that in my next post…

With mypartners in crime, Clouds & Leigh.  Lovin’ our moment on the red carpet.

xxx

The Cosmo Swimwear show

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Last Tue, after the GQ Magazine pool party, we headed over to The Grand Café & Beach in Granger Bay for the Cosmopolitan Swimwear 2011 fashion show.  The theme for the evening was “sultry summer” – so I finally had an opportunity to wear this cute bright blue strapless dress I bought back in June at Zara in Rome.  Yeah! (yes – it was a bit chilly & yes – I did freeze my ass off. But no pain no gain hey.)

The venue was packed and kitted out Brutal Fruit style – as they were the main sponsor for the event – with free Brutal Fruit all night long and an awesome chill spot to put your feet up.

Katy Perry’s sexy pussycats were also on the scene to promote her new perfume, Purr:

I wear this exact outfit at home while watching TV. Such a coincidence!

The fragrance notes include:  Sweet peach nectar, green bamboo, apple, white Jasmine blossom, Bulgarian roses, vanilla orchid, amber, sandalwood & musk.  Sjoe – that’s a mouth full… And it all equated to being just waaaaaay to sweet for me. I prefer something more subtle.

Next I headed over to the Rimmel area where I was treated to some free eyeshadow & mascara.  The PE girl in me always jumps for joy when it comes to freebies.  It’s ingrained in my genetics to lap up any opportunity for free stuff, even if it happens to be something totally hideous or useless to me.  Luckily this time round, that wasn’t the case. :)

Loved the daisy lights

We settled into our seats and waited for the show to kick off.  For the show opener they got hot drumming act, 1st Project, to get the crowd going:

I’m sure there were a lot of women in the audience who didn’t even realise that they were playing music. hehe

This was followed by… well… you guessed it… hot chicks wearing very little ;) :

Made me promise myself that I’m going to start taking gym seriously again

But the lovely people at Cosmo at least thought of us girls as well and made sure there were lots of guy candy to oogle as well:

Only a real man can rock a silver speedo

Mid show they had this amazing acrobatic act consisting of two super strong ladies doing all kinds of hectic balancing acts:

The boys agreed that this act was a huge turn on…  wow, who woulda thought…

Now I have to admit, the lighting and our positioning did make it hard to get really good shots.  Hence the blurriness in a lot of the pics.  But I did manage to snap this pic which just worked out to be absolute perfection:

Should sell this baby to Roxy for sure…

After the show, Bjorn & Siv (amazing stand up comic, actor and all round awesome dude. You owe me big time for this punt btw Siv… :) ) put some serious thought into who they thought rocked their bathing suits the best…

Swimwear judging… a tough job…

I let them do their thing while I was mingling with celebrity specialist, Clayton Morar and Mr Fitness & owner of DRANGED clothing, Jeff Tsoutsos:

After all the tough schmoozing, we hit the dance floor to bust out some epic moves.  As you’ll see from this pic below – the dance floor was buzzing:

It’s rare that events like these actually get people dancing.  So this was really cool to see.

My final free stuff tally for the evening also included a Sunglass Hut voucher.  I have like 4 of these now.  The real sucky thing is that you can’t use them together.  Aaargggh.  I guess I’m totally being forced into buying 4 pairs then.  Like I really needed an excuse. Ha!

My voucher and my Rimmel goodies

As I sadly had to work the next morning, we couldn’t party the night away (as much as I would have loved to)… But we couldn’t leave before Bjorn & Siv first got down to a bit of “surfing”:

This is Cape Town style surfing – you don’t actually go in the water. Why? Cause it’s too bloody cold, that’s why! hehe

One thing’s for certain – Cosmo knows how to throw a great party.  Had such an awesome time.  Sometimes these events can end up being stuffy and boring, but this one sure as hell was anything but.

xxx

The birthday boys

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Last Thursday was an evening of birthdays and birthday boys. ;)

Birthday boy # 1 was the hottie on my arm Bjorn Steinbach:

Bjorn’s not big on birthday celebrations for himself.  So we ended up spending the evening at two other birthday events.  Go figure hey…

The first was the glam-fabulous-party-extravaganza of SA celebrity blogger & Expresso TV reporter, Clayton Morar.   I’ve met Clayton a couple of times before at various social events and can confirm that he is an absolute sweetheart!  But OK OK, so this wasn’t technically Clayton’s birthday party, but it was the 1 year birthday celebration of his very popular website.  So for that, I’m counting him as birthday boy # 2. ;)

He pulled out all the stops for this party.  A red carpet to welcome guests, camera crews, professional photographers, goodie bags, the works!

The event took place at The Reserve in St Georges Mall in Cape Town’s city center.  I had not had the opportunity to check out this venue before, so was really excited to finally see the inside.  It really does have some impressive features:

The lights on the ceiling kept changing colours… very cool

Then this is the first bar you see when you enter the club:

Here I enjoyed some SKYY Vodka Collins cocktails – on the house. Yeah baby! SKYY Vodka was one of the many sponsors of the evening.

Have to show you guys some more venue shots because this place is just so damn cool. :) Below, on the left, is the 2nd bar – which is situated right at the back of the venue.  Loved it’s opulent feel and over the top gold trimmings.  Then on the right below is the view of the main dance floor from that bar.  The big bird cage thing is actually the DJ box:

The guest list to this little shindig included SA celebs like: TV presenter – Liezel van der Westhuizen; mean Idols judge – Randall Abrahams;  soccer hottie – Ryan Botha, contraversial cricketer – Herschelle Gibbs and Sonia and Matthew Booth – our very own soccer power couple.  Move over Posh & Becks…

Then the Swing Tings were there to entertain the crowd.  They seem to be the new “in” act of the moment.  I did some Googling and found out that they actually only launched their band in August of this year. Basically they call themselves a “live electro swing act” and they consist of SAMA nominee Lu Chase and French Producer / DJ, Infrared.   I saw them perform for the first time at the CK Shock perfume launch back in September.  I didn’t even realise at that point that they were still such a new act, because they area really really polished.  Nice one guys.

Anyhoo, the evening evolved and we got to mingle with some interesting folks, but unfortunately we couldn’t stay too late as there was still one more party to get to…

Birthday boy # 3 was comedian Siv Ngesi and he was having his party at the Fez.  How do I always end up at that venue!?!  Luckily, because the crowd pretty much consisted only of Siv’s friends, we had quite a jol. Sjoe. :)

There’s Siv on the left… looking as happy as can be…

The music was great for a change, which meant we could bust out some seriously cheesy moves and dance the night away… Well, that was until I couldn’t walk anymore.  You see, I had made a poor choice in shoe for the evening.  Sure, the shoes were seriously hot and I got lots of compliments.  But the general rule with shoes are:  The better they look, the more they bloody hurt!  No pain, no gain I guess…  But I started off the evening gliding across the floor in total elegance… and ended off by moving like someone needing a Zimmer frame. hehe.  Final score for the evening:  Shoes 1 – Me 0. :(

That actually got me thinking.  There should be a service where hunky guys carry girls to their cars or taxis – letting you take your shoes off and give your feet a rest.  It’s plain genius I tell you!!!

Thanks to all 3 boys for letting me share their special night with them.  Had a blast.  And have almost got the feeling back in my feet…. almost…

xxx

Rocking the Daisies 2011: The recap

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I hadn’t managed to get out of work as early as I wanted to on Friday… so we got to Rocking the Daisies a bit late, but luckily our tent was already sorted as my friend Rolf offered to secure a great spot & setup our tent for us earlier that day in exchange for a lift for his darling fiance Lucy (who happens to be a close friend of mine).  I would have given her a lift in any case if she needed one, so I think I totally got the better end of that deal. Mwhahahahaha. ;)

Rolf was brave enough to do the Cycle to Daisies – yes, that’s right, he got there on a bicycle!  Therefore he headed out quite early on Friday.  It’s about 75 km driving distance to Darling.  Then the Cloof Wine Estate is about 10km outside of town.  Once on the estate, you then have to brave about another 10km on a dirt road to get to the festival area.  That’s hectic.  But not as hectic as the people who WALK to the Daisies.  Yes, those crazy folks do actually exist.  For the cycling option, you get your festival ticket at a discount and they will take your stuff up for you.   For the walking option, you at least get in for free.  You would bloody hope so. hehe.

I figured the approx 1 hour drive sounded like the most sane option…

Upon arrival, I quickly had to snap a pic of the flowers.  Good thing I did, because these were pretty much the only flowers I saw all weekend:

Ta da!!!

After we had settled in at our tent and said hi to everyone, it was dark time to go and explore.  My first stop was that Daisy Den I had heard so much about.  I was worried that this “girls only” tent would not live up to my expectations… but it did not disappoint.

Fancy showers with lots of mirrors.  Clean toilets.  GHD stylers to jazz up your hair.  Pretty couches to relax and put your feet up.  Manicure & pedicure stations.  Brutal fruit bar.  And all of this at no extra cost!  It was seriously awesome.

There was a “Man Cave” tent as well.  It was so lame.  It only had like 4 pool tables.  That’s it.  And the biggest insult for the dudes was that they were letting girls enter the tent in any case. haha.  Shame guys…  sucks to be you. :)

Food wise, there were lots of great options: Hudsons burgers, tasty shawarmas, sushi, Butlers pizza and more.   Of course they also made sure there was a strong coffee hook up – crucial for those hangovers in the mornings.

We made a mission to check out all the different entertainment areas.  First the Nu World Beat ring – a smallish tent featuring various types of music from all over the world:

Then the Red Bull Studio live tent for all your “doef doef” music cravings:

Ooooh, look at all the flashing lights…

The Lemon Tree Theatre had comedy acts, magicians, dancers, bar flaring and more:

Then last but not least, the Main stage – the place where all the big name bands were performing:

I’m not sure who that dodgy guy was… but his jumpsuit was way too tight, just sayin’…

I was seriously excited to check out Gazelle & Jack Parow on the Friday evening.  And I must say both put on a fantastic show.

Gazelle was up first.  As usual DJ Invisible was knocking out some seriously cool beats and Gazelle himself was wearing one of his fabulously awesome getups:

The band went all out with African dancers and insane visuals and lighting.  It was really a stand out performance.  Love, love, loved it!  Of course they did “Verlore Seun” – but luckily this time they didn’t leave it til right at the end of the set… that song is way to awesome to have to wait for.  In fact, it’s so awesome, they should open & close with it. :)

Side bar:  Here’s me & my darling Lucy.  She’s been away for a few years doing her PhD and I’m really happy that she’s finally back home. This chicka is seriously smart, she even speaks Mandarin! (amongst a few other languages)  Anyhoo, she’s getting married next year in March and has been brave enough to ask me to be one of her bridesmaids – not only that, but I’m also in charge of the bachelorette party.  Mwhahahahaha.  Bring on the male strippers!!!  No no no… don’t worry Luce, I’m just kidding… or am I? ;)

Next up was Jack Parow.  Did you guys know that he has a seriously hot female drummer?  Seriously, Google it, she’s smokin’…

Jack did a collaboration with a bass rap collective called PH Fat, which was brilliant.  And obviously the crowd went wild when he did his famous hit, “Cooler as Ekke”.  I still rate that song as one of my favourites from the past 5 years.

After that we headed over to the Nu Word Beat ring to do a bit of dancing.  Was cool because it wasn’t too packed, so you had lots of space to bust out your moves.

On Saturday we woke up cooking in our tents by like 7am – it was bloody hot!!!  Excited to have a shower at the Daisy Den, that was my first mission.  Sadly, that was also every other chicka’s plan – so I ended up standing in a queue for about 1h 30min.  Was it worth it?  Oh hell yeah!  Felt sooooo good afterward.  I hate having to walk around all day feeling smelly & gross.

Because it was such a beautiful day, we spent most of our time at “the beach”:

Ja ja, so it’s obviously not a real beach.  It was just a sandy area next to the dam.  But they did put up a really cool little beach bar where you could order cocktails and such, with cool tunes playing in the background.  So it was perfect.

Because of the heat, umbrellas were a huge trend with the ladies.  But these were not your average R20 umbrella you bought next to the road, think pretty traditional Chinese umbrellas and antique looking lace umbrellas.  Lucy in fact was rocking a very pretty umbrella made by a friend of hers:

The brand is called AfroSol.  Prices & stockists are still not certain.  But you can check out this blog spot in the meantime to stay in the loop if you’re interested.  I was also really taken by a ring Lucy was wearing:

It’s made by a friend of hers, Marietjie.  Her jewellery range is called Skermunkil.  Check out her blog, Eendag op ‘n Reendag to find out more about her, her jewellery & stockists.  This ring was from her “Lost & Found” collection where she incorporated antique china into her pieces.  I absolutely love it.  Dying to check out more of her stuff now.

It was at this point that I accidentally DROPPED MY CAMERA INTO MY PINA COLADA! Yes, this is unfortunately a true story. I couldn’t even make this sh!t up if I tried. (For the record, I was sober – which kinda makes it worse)  You see I got distracted when my bikini strap came loose, forgot that my camera strap was around my wrist, proceeded to try and re-attach the strap and left my camera dangling into my drink.  Awesomeness.com. hehe.

I left it to dry for a couple of hours.  Luckily the battery & memory card was still fine.  As for the camera’s ability to still take pictures… well, let me rather show you:

It’s like barely noticeable, right? It’s simply a permanent “soft focus” feature. :)

I took a few more pics on my phone – it was pretty much the only use I got out of the bloody thing over the weekend because I had zero reception.  Then again, not much has changed since thanks to the worldwide Blackberry service stuff up.

At 1pm we moved over to the main stage to check out iScream & the Chocolate stix:

They had a pretty good set.  I think it was just a tough time slot due to the heat.  It was extremely hard to convince people to get out of the water and into the piping hot sun.  I thought they were worth the effort though.

While chilling under a tree, we noticed “muscle man” for the first time – he was guarding the backstage area:

You want to come in? Me don’t think so…

He was letting people in according to their fancy pants arm bands.  You thought you were special with a VIP arm band?  Think again, just look all the various levels of cool:

The rest of the afternoon was spent chilling at the dam again.  Soaking up the sun an enjoying some more cocktails  (this time without camera flavouring). hehe.

That evening we decided to go check out some comedy at the Lemon Tree Theater.  Siv Ngesi  was doing a set – I’ve met him a couple of times, he even lives in my building, but I’d never seen him do his thing.  So I was really keen to check it out.  The guy rocked that stage! Brilliant stuff…

Sadly though, it was at this point that my weekend took a nasty turn.  Let me explain… as a kid, I was allergic to absolutely everything.  My childhood was something similar to that movie “Bubble Boy”.  True story.  Most of my allergies I’ve managed to outgrow.  But every now and again something triggers it and I get this crazy attack similar to an asthma attack. This time around it happened to be the hay bales they used as seating in the theater.   I wasn’t feeling great, but I figured maybe it would get better if I got enough fresh air.   This worked for a while.  But then we wanted to go check out PH Fat at the Red Bull tent.  It was quite stuffy and packed in there, so was battling to breathe as is.  But I just got worse and worse.  Couldn’t understand why.  That was until my friend Paul pointed out that they had used hay as floor cover in that tent as well.  That was the end of me…

I had to rush back to my tent to take lots of antihistamines, but at that point it was too late.  I just had to wait it out.   I sounded like a chain-smoking 80 year old at that point – heaving & coughing like crazy.   Also, I made this awesome squeaking sound when I took a breath.  Eventually the drugs knocked me out and I managed to get some sleep.

I pretty much woke just up on the Sunday, packed up and headed home.  Then spent the entire day on my couch, feeling like death… and also like a total loser.   It took me back to when I was 6 and my mom dropped me off at a birthday party.  But before leaving she gave the other kid’s mom a list of all the things I was allergic to.  The mom got so nervous she made me sit with all the mom’s for the entire party to keep an eye on me. Aaarrrggh.  Needless to say, making friends was hard. ;)

So ja… my weekend started out amazing, but came to an abrupt end.   I guess you can’t win them all.  There’s always the Synergy music festival in November.  I’ll just make sure I drug myself up properly in preparation and mabye I’ll call the organisers to ask them not to use hay bales please.

xxx