Tuesday 30 June 2009

Damn you, Grey's Anatomy


Why'd you have to make me cry last night?

K', so I know I wasn't the only one sobbing into my hankies. (I texted one of my best gal pals to see how she was coping. She wasn't.) But no wonder. When Meredith suddenly realised the mashed-up bus accident victim was George, followed by Izzie flatlining in Karev's arms... I mean, c'mon! Seriously?

Seriously!

That and the mushy vow exchange between Meredith and McDreamy plus Yang and her screwy sexy doc love meant my Kleenex never stood a chance. It gave me goosebumps, I tell ya!

And then when Izzie was in the 'express elevator to heaven' in her pretty pink dress and the doors open to find George standing there all ready for the military (not really), the floodgates opened and left me crying like a baby.

Way to end the season. Sheesh. (Can't wait for the next one!!!! :)


Sure, they're smiling now. They haven't got to the finale yet...

Going up?

Tuesday 23 June 2009

Holy crap, Batman! I'm old(er)

Yep, today's my birthday. I'm 32 years old. Can you believe it? I can't. I still feel the same as I did when I left school. So basically, I'm a 17 year girl in a 32 year old woman's body.


32. That's 224 in dog years! Good thing I'm not a dog.



Friday 19 June 2009

Last Girl Standing

Last night, the last of my single friends got engaged. This means that three of my close friends are currently engaged while the rest of them have already tied the knot. I'm now officially the last (single) chick standing.

Now, if this was Survivor, I'd be the Ultimate Survivor and Jeff would be holding a $1 000 000 cheque with my name on it.

I'm a winner! High-five!


But this isn't Survivor and there's no Jeff. All the same, the tribe has left the island and so I now have the place all to myself. The upside is I can run around my island naked, eat whatever I want on my island, and sleep whenever I want.
On my island. Yup, my very own big, deserted, lonely island.

Sigh.


Outwit, outplay, outlast. I guess one out of three isn't bad.



Thursday 18 June 2009

Counting the sheep

Aw man, for a change I've actually GOT stuff to blog about but I've run out of time for today. 'Will try again tomorrow but in the meantime, here's a lovely little pic of Jacob Zuma's wives at his State of the Nation address, just the other week.

Clearly riveting stuff. Yeah.


Sweet dreams, little cherubs...


(Then again, maybe they're not actually sleeping. Maybe, just maybe, they're praying for him to hurry up and finish his speech. Hmmm...)

Friday 12 June 2009

Follow Follow

The clock is ticking and it's now only a year until South Africa hosts the 2010 Football World Cup. 'Must admit, when we were bidding to host the games, I was really against it. I didn't - and still don't - see the logic of spending so much money on a sporting event when our education system, correctional facilities, health care system and police force are in such desperate need of funding. I know that the World Cup creates thousands of job opportunities, but surely that's a temporary thing. Once the event is over, what are all those builders and vendors going to do? Yeah, I'd really prefer to see the money go towards education (which will alleviate crime and poverty in the long run), health care, the police force and correctional facilities. I believe if the country focuses our time money on those areas, the country will gradually grow from strength to strength, and we can curb the awful crime, poverty and unemployment that plagues the nation. But the fact of the matter remains, we are hosting the World Cup next year, so there's no point in griping about the coulda, woulda, shouldas.

I'm not a sports fan. I couldn't care less about who the Stormers are playing and cricket sends me into a spontaneous stupor. But if I had to choose a sport, it would be football. (And tennis too - that's often good to watch.) Growing up in a typical Brit family with two brothers, I was pretty much surrounded by football. I remember way back in the day, when I was very young, I'd kick around a football with my dad and brothers in the lazy late afternoon sun. Both my brothers played football at school and at a club, so I'd often to be dragged along in the evening to watch their practices, or early on Saturday mornings when they'd play against other clubs. Now that they're all grown up, the boys no longer play footie but it's impossible to visit my folks without seeing and hearing a game on TV. In fact, the only reason my dad got DSTV was so that he could watch the football. Poor mum. So my dad and one brother spend a good portion of their time watching football on the telly while my youngest brother - who lives in the UK - often spends his weekends attending live matches supporting his favourite team while proudly dressed in his team's colours.

Hey, you still there? Sorry for the boring family history. Didn't mean to send you to sleep. It was just my long, roundabout way of saying that I'm actually looking forward to next year's World Cup. I've even got some tickets! Two earlier games and the Cape Town semi-final, which I think is going to be pretty damn awesome! Like I mentioned earlier, South Africa is spending a ridiculous amount of money in preparation of the World Cup - money that could perhaps have been put to better use. That said, I'm sure a good portion of the money comes from sponsorships. South Africans are quite divided on how they feel about the upcoming games. Some feel that it's going to be a humiliating embarrassment and that there's no way we'll meet our targets. But others, like me, feel that a lot of progress has been made and so I have little doubt that we'll probably end up doing a good job. It may cost us an arm and a leg, but it'll be good.

While some of the country's existing stadia are being upgraded, other stadia are being built from scratch. Being huge projects, the building started a good couple of years ago and now, as we draw closer to D-day, they're really beginning to take shape.

Soweto's Soccer City is probably the most African-themed of all the stadia - made to look like an enormous calabash.

Durban's Senzangakhona Stadium is set to be pretty magnificent, complete with a panoramic sky arch.
But being a Cape Town girl, I'm really excited to see how the new Green Point stadium is going to turn out. It's been dogged by controversy since the outset, but now that the finish line is in sight, it's really looking good. I pilfered these images off of a City of Cape Town website - they show the progress of the stadium as it's slowly being resurrected. Photography is by Bruce Sutherland.

This was taken 2 years ago, before construction on the stadium started
Making good progress

Some of the construction crew

Getting there...

A job not recommended for those wary of heights

A typical Cape Town morning, sporting a stadium shrouded in a misty blanket of cloud
(pic courtesy of www.rycatprojects.org)
And if everything goes according to plan, this is what the Green Point Stadium is going to look like, some day soon...

Nice, eh?

So you see, I'm looking forward to the 2010 Football World Cup, and I really do believe everything's going to turn out just fine. You may think I'm being naive, and perhaps you'd be right. Who knows. Either way, only time will tell. But I've got a good feeling about this. Only 363 days to go. And counting...

P.S. Oh jeez, I almost forgot. There's another upside to the World Cup but in this case, the pictures speak a thousand words :)

Oh yummy
(Pic courtesy of The Times)

Thursday 11 June 2009

Bad ad deluxe

You know what I hate? These ads.

H.A.T.E. them! Here, have a look:

and this one...


It's not the nekkedness that rubs me up the wrong way. Really, it's not. I've never been a prude and so I'm pretty okay with flashing breasts and other body parts. At times I even encourage it!

But in this case, I just think the ads are horrible and tacky. Eeuw. I can't even put my finger on it exactly. I just dislike them immensely.

'You'll want to show it off'? Yeah sure, but unless you're a stripper surely there are more subtle - classier - ways of doing so.

Just saying.

I don't mean to sound all women's lib and stuff (not that there's anything wrong with that), but I've got the sneaky suspicion that the 'creative' team behind these ads may be guys. Just a feeling. It's like that tv ad for sanitary products that finishes with the tagline: "Have a HAPPY period". Happy?!?!? Are you frikken' kidding me?!?!?!? Let's be clear about this. A period may be many things but 'happy' is NOT ONE OF THEM. It doesn't have to be bad, but happy? No. And I'm sure there's not a woman on the planet who would disagree*. So again, I'm thinking maybe, just maybe, the tagline for that ad was coined by a male copywriter.

Anyway, regardless of whether the bust cream ad was driven by a male or female team, I still think it's a crap ad. Maybe I'm being silly over nothing but c'mon, you don't advertise Viagra using pictures of triumphant erections. And that's a good thing! :)

* The only time when 'happy' and 'period' do work together is when your period is late and you start to suspect the worse. Then, when 'granny and the red ferrari' do eventually pitch, yes, there is a moment of happiness. But it's fleeting. Oh-so-fleeting.


Wednesday 10 June 2009

Lost in translation

"Let's have some fun, this beat is sick.
I wanna take a ride on your disco stick."

Hmmmmm... interesting. Something tells me that by 'disco stick' Lady Gaga isn't referring to the thing that suspends a disco ball from the ceiling.


Yeah.


Mommy, mommy! What's a disco stick?
(Pause) ...Go ask your father.

Friday 5 June 2009

Well, tickle me pink

So much for my 'post-per-day' plan. 'Will try again next week. We're heading into Friday evening and most of my colleagues have already left the office to get a head start on the weekend. Which is pretty much what I'm about to do. Somewhere out there in cold, wet Cape Town, a glass (or two) of wine and a delicious Thai curry is waiting for me. Yummy.

But here's my parting gift: I read this online a little earlier today and while it's hardly earth shattering, the thought of research that involves tickling baby orangutans, baby bonobos, baby gorillas and baby humans until they laugh is absolutely delightful. So here's wishing you a weekend of many giggles and tickled monkeys.

Wednesday 3 June 2009

Plagiarism is the most sincere form of flattery*

I kinda set myself a target of posting every day for the month of June (at least on weekdays) but today's flown by and I haven't had a chance to give it much thought. So today, I'm going to cheat and post some funny stuff that other people came up with ;)


*Liked that, did ya? Well run right over to these sites for more where that came from...

Cats That Look Like Hitler

The Shoebox Blog
LOL Cats
Savage Chickens
Graph Jam


P.S....
Last but not least, the prez and his lady du jour.
(Yeah, Barack and Michelle, they are not.)


Tuesday 2 June 2009

Me, myself and I

So what's up with people who refer to themselves in the third person?* It's the weirdest thing. Last night I caught an episode of America's Next Top Model (yes, I'm a reality TV whore) and one of the model wannabees is this chick called Jade. Jade has got some serious 'tude and comes across as a downright biatch. And to make matters worse, she always talks about herself in the third person. As in 'Jade doesn't do this' and 'Jade doesn't do that' and 'Y'all better watch out cos Jade is so fierce right now she's gonna take you bitches down.' Okay so don't quote me on that - I can't remember what it is exactly that she said, but you get the drift.

Fierce / Scary (such a fine line)

But seriously, what's up with that? And it's usually society's dumbasses that make this a habit. A while back I heard ex-Cape Town mayor Peter Marais being interviewed on CapeTalk and throughout the segment he kept referring to himself in the third person. Seriously! I mean c'mon. What are you? Schizophrenic? Maybe, but I'm thinking it's more a case of a super-sized ego. Yup, no self-esteem issues there. Maybe I'm just from a generation of low self-esteem kids.

* That said, I think some situations call for third-person referrals - like when blogging. Then it's kinda quirky and cool. But in all other situations, I think it makes you sound like a first-class eejit.

(still funny even after all these years...)

Monday 1 June 2009

Deja Moo

My life has been considerably dull lately and so while I work on a plan to remedy that, I'm going to waffle on about stuff that has nothing to do with me. (Believe me, it's better that way.)

So did you guys hear about the pod of whales that beached themselves on Long Beach in Kommetjie on Saturday? Really sad stuff. In the end, they had to euthanise about 40 of them, as it was the kindest thing to do. Quite tragic, really. But I wonder what it is that makes whales and dolphins beach themselves in the first place? Mystery of nature, I suppose. Still, very sad.

Onto movie stuff... I had an assignment I had to work on this weekend, and so in true FPT style, I avoided it like the plague and left it to the very last minute (ie. Sunday evening) - which gave me plenty of time to catch up on some movies. I was too lazy to make myself decent and leave my house so I dug around and found a couple of flicks I hadn't yet watched. First up was Eagle vs Shark. Quite a strange little movie - sweet and quaint but also a little off-sides. A New Zealand production, the film didn't have any recognisable names or faces. But I enjoyed it. You might too.

Then I decided to watch Sweeney Todd. I won't lie. Johnny Depp was a major factor in choosing the film, but I really struggled to get into it, and I fell asleep before the end. Must've been all that singing. I'm not really a fan of singing in a movie (with maybe Mamma Mia being the exception) and so I think that's what put me off. (Why Johnny, why?...)



Moving on... Can you believe Susan Boyle did NOT win Britain's got Talent this weekend?!??!?!?!? Och aye, it's true! Really, what's this world coming to? First Adam and now Susan?!?!?!? Someone needs to have a serious word with the voting public - are you guys all on crack?!?!? C'mon!!!! Poor Susan, she wuz robbed. :(

Anyway, we've now come to the awwww... sweet... segment of today's post. Here are some warm and fuzzy photies of a brand-spanking new panda cub who made a grand arrival a few days ago after its mother was artificially inseminated with her partner's panda sperm. And look! 200g of cute baby panda! Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww... Too cute!

How gorgeous is this little guy?!?!?!?

(and one more time for the people in the cheap seats...)
Awwwwwwwww...

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