Only one...

You know, only one person would wake me up at 1:30 in the morning with the sweet question

"Would you like a scone?"

and THAT's just another reason why they're so very special

Why I LOVE Cape Town

Yes, the country is in a little bit of turmoil again.
Yes, people are panicking and yes, there is faith being lost in the market. blah blah blah

But there are great people around staying positive!
Seeing change as an opportunity and a good thing and expressing themselves left and right!

Whoever made this poster, KUDOS to you! It got me to let out a BIG smile



Also on this note let me "Helen love" again for a while...
Only you could make a comment like you did on Morning Live today, on the dawn of our new president being announced!

For those who missed it...
When asked whether she had lost any faith in SA Politics her reply went something along the lines of this:
(don't quote me as i can't find the clip anywhere and am going on personal memory)

No i haven't. There's a saying that if you like sausage, you should never see how it's made. That's where we are in SA at this time... we're still making sausage...

wow i laughed! Great analogy for the day after Braai Day...

WE NEED MORE HELEN'S!

Why I LOVE Lucy

I think I would do almost anything for Lucy!

I would have helped her for nothing in return this morning but then suddenly *ding*
Who's at the door?
Flowers for me?!

And they're beautiful! And I appreciate her! And that's what makes Lucy one of the greatest people I know...

*hug*

thank you Luce!

See? so preeeeeeety!

Happy Extraordinary Huge Hadron Collider Day!

Yay!

Yes i know I'm a nerd but i've been quite excited about this for a bit of a long time now and this morning is it!

9.30

Possibly the moment we arrive a step closer to unlocking some amazing doors! Possibly a step closer to proving some brilliantly imaginative people right!
er... and only very slightly possibly proving some scarily cinical people right too :P

(nah! it'll only be a tiny rip! black hole?? pfft! honestly! some negative stuff flying around out there... heh ;)

Traffic Spotting

Spotted on our great N1 this mornin!

Aaaah the greater Kraaifontein metropolis and the pride that you're filled with when you see things like this!

*grin*

little cutie-pie!!

Aw man! i don't often fall in love with dogs n puppies on first site...
and yes i know this may make me a possibly eeeevil person or some such thing

BUT this kid was just killing me on the spot!
what an adorable, precious little fluffy thing! He has that circle around both of his eyes and looks as tho he'd been the victim of a binocular and shoe-polish trick.

I was literally about 5 seconds away from breaking my bank and bringing home a new family member when the petstore counter-teen came along to pick him up and hand him over to his new owner *sigh*

Ah well
My cat would probably have never forgiven me anyway :)
x love you always little Prank.

The Lagdolls!

Or at least I'm pretty sure that's what the lead singer said their name was? Earlier i could have sworn she said the Ragdolls but corrected herself later towards the end of the set!

But WHAT an awesome performance we saw last night!
Not as BEE as the last band i watched at Mercury but still open minded and working in the new SA spirit!
"Everyone's going down on me" is brilliantly belted out and undiscriminating!
Who was she talking about?! I dunno but it sounded good and she seemed pretty OK with it? kinda?

The majority of the fan-base appear to be women!
I'm just going to say it...
it's obvious!
The bassist and the guitarist... Good looking fellows so it's really now wonder? Am i wrong?

Also confirmation that the bassist does indeed have a medium firmness to his bottom was established. He seemed shocked.

signing off
Nicky Plume

8 People Who Will Ruin Your Party

Via HolyTaco.com.
and passed on by Laura

(only edited this sliiightly *grin*)

I'm pretty sure I've met one or two (or more) of these characters at flat parties hey guys? aaaah memories :P

8. Person Who Insists On Cleaning Up Your Party While It's Still Going On

WHERE YOU CAN FIND THEM: Right in front of you, asking if your drink is finished. Or, methodically moving through the party with a white trash bag and a look on their face as if they've been hunting Osama Bin laden for the last 6 years and have narrowed down his whereabouts to somewhere in this party.

WHY THEY WILL RUIN YOUR PARTY: Drinking a beer, is far less enjoyable when someone is asking you if you're finished every five minutes. It's great that they want to help you clean up, but if you've decided to have a party, you've already resigned yourself to the fact that when it's over, your house is going to probably look like the bathroom that Cary Elwes and Danny Glover woke up in, in the first Saw movie. It's believed these people also decide to wipe their bottoms in the middle of toilet trips, just to "cut down on the work that has to be done when it's all over!"

7. Guy Who Gets Wasted In The First Hour

WHERE YOU WILL FIND HIM: "Right by the fridge, bro, cause that's where all the beer is!"

HOW HE WILL RUIN YOUR PARTY: From the moment this guy shows up, everything he says has an exclamation point at the end of it. "This party rules, dude!" "I am ready to party TO-night!" "Let's shotgun these, bro!" "Tits!" Then, one hour and 13 beers later he's incoherent, weaving on his feet and saying stuff like "Paartyyyygjlskdvm…" So, instead of kicking back and hanging out with your friends, you have to spend the rest of the night making sure he doesn't puke on your couch, pee in your plants or drool on your coffee table.

6. Person Who Only Knows You

WHERE YOU CAN FIND THEM: About two feet to the right of you, standing silently, staring at either you or the person you're talking to.

WHY THEY WILL RUIN YOUR PARTY: You invited them because during the four and a half minutes a day you talk to them at work, they seem pretty cool. Except as soon as they get to your party, they tense up like Alex Rodriguez's ass during a game in October. You have two options at this point, 1) entertain them and include them in every conversation you have the entire night, like they're your wife or husband even though you probably don't know their last name, or 2) leave them on their own which leads to them standing in a corner by themselves, staring at you, causing your friends to ask you "Um... I think that guy in the corner is planning on killing you."

5. Crying Girl

WHERE YOU WILL FIND HER: She's usually holed up in the bathroom (taking up valuable toilet space) with three of her bestest girlfriends—all three of whom are overweight.

HOW SHE WILL RUIN YOUR PARTY: The worst part is that this girl isn't crying because her parents just died or she lost a limb. She's sobbing into a fistful of tissues because she always needs to be the center of attention. If everyone's not focused on her and all her problems, she just starts crying louder about her job or some lame guy who won't date her. If possible, pair her up with the super wasted guy. She'll think he's listening and he'll think he's going to score.

4. Person Who Just Got Dumped By Their Girlfriend/Boyfriend

WHERE YOU CAN FIND THEM: In any corner where they were able to trap and force someone to listen to them talk about how they "don't know what happened," and how it "seemed like things were fine and then all of a sudden she just said that she thought that we were different people now. What does that even mean? Do you know, because I sure don't! I just miss her so much. My name's Brian by the way."

WHY THEY WILL RUIN YOUR PARTY: If you wanted people to get depressed at your party, screen a copy of Schlindler's list. The problem with these people is, they don't care who they talk to, and no excuse you give will stop them from talking to you. "Hey, I gotta run to the bathroom," "No worries, I'll just wait for you until your done, unlike my EX girlfriend, who wouldn't wait no matter HOW important it was to go to the bathroom and would just leave you with NOTHING while you were in there."

3. Creepy Dude Who Tries To Score Chicks At The Very End Of The Party

WHERE YOU CAN FIND THEM: Towards the end of the party, he'll be wherever he hears the words "I can't believe my friends left without me, they were my ride!" or "I'm so (hiccup) fucked up (hiccup) I gotta lay down or something."

WHY THEY WILL RUIN YOUR PARTY: There's a reason why this dude waits till the end of the party to try and score; he's way too creepy to do so when someone isn't in some sort of desperate situation. Thus, although he's there because he's either family, a neighbor, or someone else invited him, you now have to hope to God he doesn't take advantage of someone at your party, otherwise your party will not be remembered as "That Fourth of July Party at Bill's house," and instead be remembered as "that party at Bill's house where that creepy guy tried to score Michele while she was puking."

2. Couple Who Brings Their Baby

WHERE YOU CAN FIND THEM: Off to the side, on their knees, pleading with a 6 month old child to stop screaming, or right next to you, asking you where he can dispose of a poo-filled diaper.

WHY THEY WILL RUIN THEIR PARTY: Nothing says party like the sound of a screaming child and the stench of talcum powder and baby oops! If there was a guy throwing up and crying at your party, would you be cool with that? No, you'd either be like "Who the hell brought this guy?" But if you say that about a baby that makes you an asshole. Meanwhile, the party dies because everyone is being super-cautious and attentive to the baby, as if the other 99% of the time that they're not there the baby is barely eluding death due to lack of supervision.

1. Politics Guy

WHERE YOU WILL FIND HIM: At the beginning of the night he usually stands right next to the front door where he overtly shows off his political button or T-shirt that says something like "Once You Go Barack, You Won't Go Back" or "McCain = McStupid." Then, after everyone shows up, he stealthily mingles from group to group while nonchalantly dropping lines like "Did you see what those fatcats tried to pull?" anytime there's a lull in the conversation.

HOW HE WILL RUIN YOUR PARTY: No one in the history of parties has ever changed their political beliefs based on some guy screaming about health care reform in the kitchen of a two bedroom apartment. His endlessly tiresome factoids and statistics about how much oil we consume and how the death penalty doesn't work will make your guests either leave or kill themselves where they stand.

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Fun fun! silly boys!

Extra, extra cute no?

Nobody can call either of these lads unprepared for their rainy-day putt putt adventure! Go team blue!

*sigh*
i wish my dangerous fondness for croissants hadn't ruined my ability to join them. Next time... i shall be ready!!

NEXT TIME i shall also manage to catch them BOTH in their rain-coats! *grin*

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Welcome! New fishy friends!

Well finally!
Please join me in welcoming our new editions to the design studio!

Keverne & L.m.n.o.p!

They're only just settling in but we hope they are feeling welcome and stay with us for quite a while! I even bought a plant and Gary i must say is looking MUCH more cheerful since their arrival.

(round of applause!)
Thank you and goodnight

Gary looks up clearly in awe of his new tank-mates...

Keverne eyed out the castle right away...



one new happy family!

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Follow-up on freaky feathered friends

clearly the Jacobin is NOT bred for flight! lol!

Ahem! mutated rats of the sky!!!

Here are the pigeons i was tellin ya'all about! :)




well, SOME of them anyway

This is just for anyone (probably that covers everyone else i know! hehe) who didn't catch the same riveting documentary on the genetics and abilities of these birds!

Turns out not everyone feels they are swooping, evil vermin of the sky? Some believe them to be the "fighter jets of the bird world"!

i kid you not.
I'll admit to being fascinated.

(but only that one time!! honest!!! :P)

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Anyone for a game of wiff waff?

London mayor Boris Johnson
This guy is great!
his speech reads pretty much on the same entertainment level as an Onion article :)

"Virtually every single one of our international sports were either invented or codified by the British, and I say this respectfully to our Chinese hosts who have excelled so magnificently at ping pong," the Mayor said in a tongue-in-cheek speech.

"Ping pong was invented on the dining tables of England in the 19th century and it was called wiff waff.

"There I think you have the essential difference between us and the rest of world.

"Other nations, the French, looked at a dining table and saw an opportunity to have dinner, we looked at a dining table and saw an opportunity to play wiff waff. That is why London is the sporting capital of the world."

"And I say to the Chinese, and I say to the world, ping pong is coming home."

those were the days...

With my daily e-mail came a rather fantastic quote! I'm adding it to my favourites :)

Word of the Day

hyperbole \hy-PUHR-buh-lee\, noun:

Extravagant exaggeration.

Hyperbole comes from Greek hyperbole, "excess," from hyperballein, "to exceed," from hyper, "beyond" + ballein, "to throw."

Those were the days when I still liked hyperbole, before an excess of real drama killed my taste for the manufactured kind.
-- Katherine Russell Rich, The Red Devil

my sentiments exactly!

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Finally went to the Assembly!

and let me say, considering we managed to go on an electro night of all nights, and we STILL had a great time... THIS place is sincerely worth your time!

Whats weird and kept popping into my head the whole time as i saw him walking around, checking up on things and chatting to people is that the person who seems mainly responsible for this great great venue, is the same guy who seemed to have such gawd-awful friends back in high school and who seemed to be SO on the side of the popular, current, cool and just socially eeevil meanie-meanertons that Tracey, Mel and I encountered on the infamous Bergvliet ovs tour :)

It's weird to see, uncomfortable to remember, but also GOOD to realise how much time can change things!

your very first shortly realised perceptions of people could often be wrong and some people CAN seem to change and so can you!

I think this is my major lesson I'm learning in 2008.
People can change.
Some for good, some bad.
But i personally have to learn to let go. Try let go of the things people did in the far away past to hurt, but also let go of those who become hurtful :)

darn balance!
so hard to achieve :)

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hmmm bad news for Saffa's?

isn't this the main reason for half of the people i know moving to london? :P
surely it was a perk tho...

ah well... i think personally that they should RAAAAATHER ban smelly hungover people from the trains.

The stench of that one single man that overwhelmed our whole compartment on Lucy and my train journey still haunts me... and probably will forever.
I have NEVER felt that ill from smell or wished myself further from any human being.

*shudder*

well... maybe one or two other hehe

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Oooooeeeeoooo! looksee what i did!

Yes ok so it's not the most astounding design in the whole world but i think it's quirky, fun and a little bitty of... me!

I created it this afternoon after stumbling apon a forgotten folder lying gathering mac-dust on my desktop

Ya'all are welcome to make comments!

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Bills in Context

see now this i think would be MUCH harder to do with our notes... hmmm

"yes! wait! hold still mr lion! ok... a little to the left and if you could tilt your head down just a tad?"

but an awesome idea anyway!

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A different view to the one i usually hear

I love Noodle's blog and try to visit it almost everyday.

I thought i would re-post this as Gaylin and I were having a very unproductive conversation about this the morning of the strike.

Makes me feel better :)

"Power to the people

Whilst driving to work today through empty roads in the comfort of your car. Spare a thought for the trade unions who are on strike today in protest of rising food and electricity costs

I'm not sure what we would do without the trade unions, for it seems without them our nation would not have a voice. They simply demand answers from government. They don't sit at home whinging about how bad things are, they go out and make a stand. Coz that's the only way to make a change."

Bits and pieces i loved from this article

By Lisa Kogan from "O, The Oprah Magazine," March 2008


Cybil sent me this fun article! Great advice and good laughs!

In 1977, my friend Brenda and I went for dinner at a little Chinese restaurant called Empress Garden. She had the lemon chicken, I had the shrimp har kow, and we each had an egg roll because in 1977 you could eat sugar and fat and deep-fried everything without its signifying that the apocalypse is at hand.

Our waiter placed the entrées in front of us and ceremoniously lifted the shiny silver domes. Brenda's chicken was crunchy on the outside, moist on the inside, lemony all over, and I knew in an instant that I'd made a hideous error in judgment --I should've gone with the chicken.

I tell you this story to illustrate my willingness to admit when I've made a mistake. In fact, I've rarely ordered a breakfast, lunch, or dinner I didn't regret; at this very moment, I'm wishing I had an iced tea instead of a Diet Coke.

But aside from the food thing and one very adorable guy in the early '80s who was all you'd want in a man except for the fact that he was also looking for all you'd want in a man, I am never, ever wrong.

Now, I'm not saying I always take my own advice or trust my own instincts. I'm merely suggesting that the world would be a much better place if everyone else were to do exactly what I tell them to do. Arrogant? You bet. Narcissistic? I suppose. But c'mon, admit it, you've had the very same thought kicking around for years. Still, I'm the one with the column -- so now without further ado ...

Everything I know about the world and how you (yes, you!) should live your life:

• If your outgoing phone message is longer than, let's say, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian of the Year segment of the Oscars®, it's time to rerecord.

• Calling to let your friend know you're running late does not excuse your constantly running late.

• I'd like to say a few words to every crabby traveler who responds with disgust whenever a baby cries on an airplane. Perhaps you don't know how babies work, but there's been a study, and it turns out that giving a 4-month-old the stink eye doesn't actually accomplish anything. Either have a little compassion or a little Ambien.

• Here's something for any gentleman who may be reading this: If you look good in a Speedo, you will look even better in virtually any other kind of swimsuit.

• I am a cynic. I am a pessimist. I came of age with the Watergate hearings playing on the tiny TV in our avocado green kitchen. But every four years, I wrestle my apathy into submission, read up on the issues, and cast my ballot. You must vote. I don't care who you vote for (that's not really true...), but you've gotta get in the game.

• One word: Floss.

• Any man who begins a conversation with, "I don't want to hurt your feelings ... " is about to hurt your feelings. It's the kind of phrase that's never followed by, "... but I just don't think you're eating enough. Please have more lasagna while I get you a brownie." Other opening gambits that pretty much scream duck-and-cover include: "Don't take this the wrong way... ," "You can feel free to say no ... ," and the always popular "Look ... "

• Get so excellent at something (long division, friendship, Parcheesi, removing cranberry juice stains, decoupage -- it doesn't matter what) that your genius will be impossible to ignore and your legendary expertise at removing cranberry juice stains while dividing six-digit numbers by 37 will either bring you glory beyond your wildest dreams or, at the very least, help you feel vaguely competent as you make your way through the world.

• I like a plastic bag and a bottle of water as much as the next self-involved me monkey, but it takes 430,000 gallons of oil to manufacture 100 million grocery bags, and if I were capable of doing even the most basic arithmetic, I'd say -- well, who are we kidding? I'm not capable of doing even the most basic arithmetic -- just know that we're in great danger of making Al Gore really, really mad.

• Words matter. It's time to stop prettifying the ugly stuff. Spousal abuse means wife beating. Global warming means the Earth is toast. Enhanced interrogation means torture.
  And here's a bit of trivia for you: The Bush administration did not coin the phrase enhanced interrogation. Nor did it come from Jack Bauer on "24." Nope, it was the Gestapo that originated that little bon mot back in 1937.

• To quote Elmer Fudd, "Be bwave, widdoe wabbit." Take a chance, wear your heart on your sleeve, ask the most attractive man in the room to dance, say what you want, demand what you're entitled to. There's a pretty decent chance that you won't get it, but who will you be if you never even try?
  Note: Only attempt the dance invitation if there's actual music playing.

• Sometimes I worry that we've all become workaholics -- because getting through life can be really hard work. But (with apologies to the fine people who pay my salary every week here at the fabulous Hearst Corporation) we need to log off, go home, and remember what it is to have dinner, conversation, and sex ... not necessarily in that order.