Time Start : 16:00 Sunday 24th June 2007
It has been so long since I last blogged, I have forgotten much of what has happened over the past few weeks!
The majority of my spare time has been spent on FaceBook, uploading photos and such. Once I’m finished, I’m considering moving this blog over to BlogSpot. There seems to be a lot more creative freedom permitted there. Also, for whatever reason, people seem to be having difficulty accessing MSN Live Spaces.
I have however been incredibly blessed lately. My birthday has passed some time ago now, on the 12th May, I got some lekker spoilings…
- R150.00 Pavilion Voucher from work
- Seasons 8, 9 and 10 of F.R.I.E.N.D.S (completing my collection)
- Nice new surf T-Shirt
- Wayne ordered me an MviX MX-760HD, which came along some time later, but was well worth the wait!
- Wayne’s folks donated the 400GB hard drive for inside our happy media player
- Wayne also got me a nice new metal and wood DVD rack
- J got me the “42 Year Old Virgin” on DVD
- Tirone and Justin bought me the “Sword in the Stone” DVD, which being a duplicate, I swapped out for the movie “Big”
- Melissa gave me a lovely dolphin candle which resides happily on our dining room table.
On my 25th birthday, Lauren (who is also my bridesmaid) went out wedding dress shopping with me. I really expected it to take forever and figured it would take visits to loads of shops before finding the right one.
With no real expectations at all, Lauren and I headed over to the Musgrave road Fabric World & Bridal Centre. As we walked in and started looking about, I saw a pretty, blonde girl trying on the most gorgeous dress, exactly what I was looking for. When we enquired about others like it, we were informed that it was a designer dress and one of a kind. Rather disappointed, we continued looking about, although the majority of their selection was in ivory, not white. I made sure that we hung around to see if I would get a chance to try on the dress that other girl was trying on when we arrived.
To our surprise, she had happened across another dress, a rather frilly affair and was now humming and Haa’ing between the two. Surrounded by her mother and a flock of bridesmaids, they were all chattering amongst themselves about which was the better dress. After some nail-biting moments for Lauren and I; she ended up going for the “frilly affair” and I rushed off to try on the other one. It was indeed, absolutely perfect and exactly what I was looking for, right down to the nice fabric twist over the mid-section. It did not even need any adjusting, it was just perfect. Also, considering that most dresses are R2000.00 just to rent, this dress definitely came at a blessing of R2750.00 !!
I was about to rush off and pay when Lauren, being the good bridesmaid that she is, reminded me of my responsibilities. I immediately phoned my mom; Lauren and I went to grab a bite to eat whilst my mom was on her way.
My mom was also very impressed with the dress and we bought it right then and there on my 25th birthday. The first dress that caught my eye and the first and only dress I tried on was the one I purchased and it is indeed a blessing from God. God knows me through and through, including how much I hate clothes shopping, hehe.
I mean have you ever heard of someone going shopping for a wedding dress, seeing the perfect one within the first 5 minutes in the first store they went to, also, that dress just happened to already be on someone else… But then having that someone else choose another dress by such a narrow margin and thus having the opportunity to try it on and having it ft perfectly, no adjustments necessary… The first and only dress that was tried on ?!? A definite wow! Finding a wedding dress in less than an hour and a half – we even got free parking, now that was a real treat! God’s really blessed me !!
Conveniently, the shop holds onto the dress for you until you are ready to pick it up, 2 weeks before the wedding, which is just super. They also clean it and fasten a button on the back for easy attachment of the trail when you are on the dance floor.
We still need to purchase a veil and a tiara, but I know that will come all in good time. 
After having a wonderful time finding a dress, Lauren and I went to the Pavilion where, as a birthday gift, Lauren treated me to a trial make-up session at MAC. Unfortunately, I came away most unimpressed when the vast amount of eye liner and eye shadow made me look like I had not slept in 3 weeks. I can get that look myself you know. 
I will try out some other make-up artists for a more natural look. I’m thinking of trying out Denise who does make-up at the “Head First” salon where I get my hair cut and also, Tracy, someone I attended school with who has since become a make-up artist. I have not even decided what to do with my hair on the day; I also have to go for a trial for that.
On the bright side, Wayne and I have picked a colour theme; we went with champaign, the light gold version. We also picked up a lovely fabric sample to give to Lauren for her to have her bridesmaid dress made out of.
Wayne and I also stopped by his family jeweler in Glenwood, David Bachelor. He sized us, and guided us in our choice. I am not a fan of yellow gold, preferring white gold myself, but Wayne is the complete opposite. Therefore it was decided that my ring would be mainly white gold with a thin line of yellow gold and Wayne’s ring would be the opposite – yellow gold with a thin line of white gold. Although we originally wanted a nice twist in it, the jeweler advised us otherwise and we trusted him to do what is right for us. David also cleaned my engagement ring free of charge; it was a most unexpected, but wonderful surprise.
The invites are also coming together, we decided to make our own ones and thus far, have been playing with paper samples. I think we are going to go for an A6 size, but so far we have made an A5 size, just as a mock.
We visited with Wayne’s cousin Janine and Wayne’s aunt Rhona. They were both endlessly helpful with all sorts of things. Rhona also offered to help organise our flowers for us, which is just super! Janine suggested all sorts of things to remember regarding stuff about the Collisheen and gave us the number of “Jackie Rey” who did the lovely chocolate mousse cake at her wedding.
We finalised things with our photographer, David Weeks and have well, sort of booked the DJ, Jason Lawrie who it turns out, is part of “Silverback Productions“. He is R420.00 an hour, but said that he only actually meets with us around 3 weeks before the wedding… Riiight. I’m sure we will be able to arrange something a little sooner, which just seems to be cutting it rather close. We are still unsure at this point whether or not to have a videographer. 
To top it all off, Wayne and I finally organised a meeting with the wedding co-ordinator at the Collisheen, Sharlain. Due to us beginning the booking of the venue in July 2006, she gave us a R5.00 discount per head. Not much, but we are glad it is something. Prices have gone up quite a bit, even since the 2007 price list, even when it came to the drapery. Fairy lights are now extra and no longer included in the package; also the menu has been changed. Sharlain said she could try and organise for some of the old menu items to be made available. Still, I found I came away with a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth. I just expected her to be more “wedding-y”, more bubbly and excited. I mean, I know that she must have done this over 100 times, but it is still a first time for us.
We would also like like to go with the Fudge Factory when it comes to table gifts and give each person a little box containing a delectable square of Granny’s Real Butter Fudge… *drool*
Hmm, speaking of all things delicious and sweet… In reflection of having bought a wedding dress, which did grip a little snugly around the rib cage, I decided to join Weigh-less. Clair has had some amazing results with it and I was sure I could be persistent enough to succeed in it. This was however not the case, I have been doing weigh-less for a month now and I think I actually gained a kg, lol. This whole measuring food thing and never being able to have pies, it is just too much for me. Also, making it through 2 litres of water a day is a challenge which is more than I can bear. I will simply have to go back to exercising soon, and a new, bigger gym is opening up at work in a month. So hoping to give that one a go! Damn my low will power… must resist fattening fooood. 
Back in the real world, Wayne took me to renew my driver’s license at Marian Hill. Fortunately, I had organised my optometrist certificate beforehand and I had my 2 black and white ID photos ready. So it was pretty much in and out. Kind of depressing to already be renewing my driver’s license when I’ve barely even driven. We decided to focus on the wedding first before adding any additional cars to our lot.
Otherwise, there have been some changes regarding tenants at our maisonette. Peter brought it to my attention that he will be moving in with Kirsten at her dad’s place. His lease only expires end of October however, so he is obligated to stick around unless we find the right replacement.
I placed an advert on the intranet at work and informed the people at church that we were looking and from there came a few “referees”. The advert specifically stated that it was a bachelor flat and also, since Wayne and I lived next door, that we were *not* obligated to take tenants on a first come, first served basis.
The first person I heard from seemed to be a really decent young, white guy who told me he was looking for a place for his mom, let’s call him “BillyBob”. Well, BillyBob arrived with his girlfriend, his mom and his sister to view the flat. They had a good look about the place and were very interested, BillyBob enquired with me about pets, as the advert had stated that “small inside critters were allowed, but no cats or dogs”. I confirmed what the advert said, at which time his sister (who I think is a tad not all there) blurted out that she had a budgie and is it ok if she brings her budgie?!? I assured her that it would be fine as I have parrots next door too; as we were about to change topic, she blurted out again about her small budgie and would it be ok to bring it… Hmm… Oookkk… I did think for a moment, why would the sister be asking about her budgie when this is the mother’s place, but I thought hey, maybe she wants to bring it by when she visits her mom or something, I just won’t ask.
Well, we finished the tour and we were all standing about in the kitchen. It was at this point when they expressed again that they are very interested, and BillyBob then told me how it was very odd, but his mom actually had a place lined up that she was going to move into the week before, however, when it came to signing the agreement, they were turned away because it was a bachelor flat and they couldn’t have both his mom and his sister staying there in the same room… *ahem*
I’m sure that my jaw dropped some at this point, I immediately retorted that this too is a bachelor flat, as stated in the advert they had seen. The same lease rules applied, the flat was either to be taken by a single person, or an intimate couple, but not by relatives, it was after all a 1 bedroom, bachelor flat… So, aside from my creepy visions of BillyBob’s mother falling down the stairs, this was definitely not the place for them.
Ball 1…
Our second interest was a young black lady who wanted to come to a viewing, but after driving by the place, figured it was not for her and said she would not be attending the viewing… ok…
Ball 2…
Our third “possible” was a young black girl, who prior to coming to see the place and informed me twice that she could not afford more than R1,600.00 a month and also snuck in a question about whether the price was negotiable. Although, after seeing the place, she was suddenly able to swing the asking price. Seriously feeling that she was living beyond her means and not wanting to have a tenant who paid the rent on and off, the place was not for her.
Ball 3…
A young black couple same to see the place and were very interested. The guy, let’s call him “Slick” was convinced that we would choose him. They also started asking about renovations and Slick’s girlfriend began waving her hands about at the walls. Slick also insisted that because he works night shift, he must have peace and quiet during the day. Can’t see much of that happening, considering there are three little tykes downstairs. So although they definitely seemed to have enough of a budget, or for all we knew, pretended to at any rate, the place was not for them.
Ball 4…
Fortunately, this was a very short walk. Wayne and I had been praying about the matter and had asked people at church to pray about the matter. We had specifically prayed that when the right person came along, that we would just know that they were “the one”, without any doubt. Indeed it was so…
Note that this short walk also excluded two young black ladies who, separately, wanted to see the flat, but neither of them pitched up for the viewing. Along with one very eager colored chap from Pietermaritzburg who after seeing the photos, wanted a phone interview, followed by simply moving in… again – riiight.
However, from the moment Mike phoned me, I was immediately filled with this feeling that this was the one. I confirmed that the place was indeed just for him and that he did not have any pets, he seemed easy going enough and was happy to come for a viewing. He was referred to us by someone I work with who had seen the advert on our intranet classifieds.
Mike came by to see the place after Slick and I just knew that yes, he was the right person for the flat. We immediately began organizing for him to move in; he underwent a full background check, signed the lease this week and will be moving in on Saturday 30th June. We are incredibly grateful to our good lord for making it just that easy and Peter is grateful to not be paying rent for somewhere he no longer lives.
Glory to God !! 
In other news, our department team building has come and gone. On the 22nd June 2007, 17 of us headed up in a train of cars to Karkloof Canopy Tours. Our manager Mike, and co-workers Tarenn, Poovendren, Latasha and myself were in the lead vehicle. We arrived without a problem, although a couple of cars seemed to have dropped off along the way.
One of the guys got out from the second car, directly behind us and informed us that the guy in the last car, driving by himself seemed to have had an issue of some sort and had pulled over, but not to worry, the car in front of him had got back to check on him and help out if needed.
What came out of the whole thing was a rather humorous story at this guy’s expense, where apparently someone had forgotten to make a pit stop before leaving and was thereby forced to stop en-route. The car in front of him had then done an almighty U-Turn, worrying that something was wrong when they saw him pulling over on the side of the road; alas however, they pulled up behind him only to see the poor fellow answering the call of nature. We all had a good laugh though, hehe. A good lesson to remember, always hit the commode *before* taking a long road trip.
Karkloof is past Pietermatizburg, just through Howick. We all arrived and were briefed by a gentleman named Africa, who informed us how to brake using the welding-type gloves being supplied to us. We were then split into groups and signed a “Yes of course, You’re not responsible if I die” indemnity form; after which, we were all kitted up by the guides.
Now I’m pretty afraid of heights, when I was 8, I could not even make it over the ladder jungle gym, I did not climb trees and when forced to do abseiling down a 16m cliff-face when I was 12 at Fernwood Adventure Centre, I was quite traumatized. After turning rather white and frantically grabbing onto some shrubbery, which promptly parted with the cliff face, I found my face meeting with the sandy wall in a rather uncomfortable sort of way. I would never do abseiling again, but here at Karkloof I found myself about to come face to face with my fear of heights.
Fortunately, the Karkloof Canopy Tours was *a lot* more enjoyable than abseiling. Once you are on those foefi slides, they simply take you, there is not much you can do, except apply the brakes. I took a couple videos with my camera, which unfortunately, insisted on saving the things in landscape format. When I tried rotating the video on Virtual Dub and resaving, the files went from a size of around 6mb, to 74mb… So I have not quite gotten there as yet.
The self-braking was not as bad as originally thought and I didn’t even have to go tandem with a guide. To brake, you simply pull down on the cable with your stronger hand, as far back behind you as possible – this prevents spinning. If however, you brake too hard and stop too soon before the platform, you then have to turn around and hand over hand, pull yourself towards the platform. That is where things can get scary, dangling there and looking down would probably have spooked me some, fortunately, the only time I did brake too soon, I was only a couple of feet away from the platform.
We started our tour at 11:00am and were already back, having lunch by 13:30. So much for our 3 hour tour… also, as described on the website, there was no way that we were able to spend time relaxing on the platforms while the guides enthusiastically explained the ecology of the forest – pointing out different trees and the magnificent giant ferns way below. Ya right. It was very much, go, go, go, and when you are sliding down, you are far too focused on the other side and when exactly you will have to begin braking (precisely 5 meters before) to be ogling about at the scenery.
Also, the guides tended to get most annoyed if you got stuck and would mutter amongst each other in Zulu. There was one slide in particular, where the guide at the top told us explicitly *not* to brake – there were one or two slides where you would not have made it to the other side if you did. However, I had a nasty surprise at the other side, going at quite a speed, the guy at the other side began beckoning me to “come”, then he started waving his hand about in some odd motion, but not once did he put it up flat palmed to indicate “stop”.
It was at this point when I made my acquaintance with the manual braking system. Should you neglect to brake yourself, they push out the manual braking system, which takes you from whatever speed you were doing to a complete, dead, jerky stop… Talk about needing shocks. My poor lungs… Being female however, I was spared much of the agony which would have been caused if I was of the opposite gender, by the harness gripping my groin in a sharp sudden, manner. It would not surprise me if some of the guy’s who this did happen to, do not end up bearing offspring… Trust me, you do not want to run into the manual brake, lol.
When I finally got off, dazed and confused, and muttered that the guide at the top told me not to brake, the guide at the other side said to me, “Noooo, you must breeeaak…” *sigh* The only other casualty was poor Lastasha, who after using the slowing “hand back and front” technique, made the perfect jump off the side of a tree, suddenly gained more momentum than she was ready for. She was not able to move her hand from in front of the pulley back to its correct position in time and got her glove… and in the process, her right thumb caught in the pulley. The guide, extremely annoyed at this stage, went down to free her. Sadly, her adventure of getting injured was not over just yet, as the cables somehow twisted and she ended up with cable burns on her left arm. She survived like a real trooper and went down the last two slides with a guide. To her dismay I, very coincidentally, video taped her getting stuck; but as our only casualty, she humoured it well and commented that at least she had provided us with some good entertainment, hehe.
On the way back, we ended up in a massive traffic jam, a traffic jam in which we were closely followed by a bright pink, septic tank truck… *oh goody* Also, Poovendren, who fell asleep and began snoring next to Lastasha and I in the back seat was not very impressed when he later found out I had snapped some footage of him dozing, hehe.
All in all, it was a lot of fun and I am glad I finally faced my fears, even if it was only to a mild extent. There is just no ways I would ever attempt abseiling again, or go anywhere near sky diving! I would however, definitely do the Karkloof Canopy Tours again, it is definitely an experience and I would recommend it to anyone!
I will put up some pics of the Karkloof Canopy Tours, although at the moment, everything seems to be ending up on FaceBook. I’ve already put a video up there too. Speaking of FaceBook, it was on the news the other night that many companies are having to block FaceBook due to a serious drop in employee productivity. How’s that one, lol. Even News24 has been reporting on FaceBook.
Last, but definitely not least, today, the 25th June 2007, is the day my sister is set to be induced to bring her tot into the world. They are thinking about naming him Jonathan – a far cry better than Henry, hehe. She had to be induced at 37 weeks due to a mild case of Obstetric Colestasis which was deemed as a risk for the baby. Praying that all goes well, keep an eye on Julie’s blog for updates.
Anyways that’s all for now, time to go and rustle up some grub! Writing in this blog is like dieting, it just never really seems to happen, well not on time anyway.
Laters Alligators!
Time End : 21:27 Monday 25th June 2007
