More nice, less nasty

It's not surprising that everyone's feeling a little down about everything from political doom & gloom, an ever-increasing petrol price (up another 55c this morning) and the scary inflation that's part of the vicious circle. I've certainly been doing my fair share of moaning) though I don't think that's a bad thing. On the contrary, I think it's important that people talk about issues and tackle them head-on instead of the government style head-in-the-sand routine). Nonetheless, I think it's time for an arb post with more of the positive and less of the nasty. So here goes...

The other week, I joined some of my closest friends for a seriously fabulous evening at Madame Zingara - and what a party! I'd heard from others who had been before that it was a good evening out but it completely exceeded all of my expectations. (In case you've never heard of Madame Zingara before, here's a little background info... A few years ago, Cape Town was home to two sister restaurants - Madame Zingara and Cara Lazuli. Both were gorgeously decadent venues - hugely popular, until Madame Zingara was pretty much razed to the ground in a fire (very dramatic!). It really was very sad. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the Madame Zingara guys found themselves in Belgium where they bought a big circus tent and hired a bunch of talented perfomers. They then brought them back to South Africa where they set up the tent (the Theatre of Dreams) and started sell-out shows where they feed and entertain 400 people a night. Very cool.

The second you enter the marquee, you're transported into a Moulin-Rouge-esque world of costumes and gaiety (for lack of a better word). The atmosphere is insanely jovial and all the people who work there are in fancy dress. Not to be left out, there's a little shop where you can stock up on wigs, masks, boas and whatever else takes your fancy - and all at a very reasonable price. (I went with a tiara which was a lot more subtle than the cow hat and 70s afro wig my friends bought. Anyway...) The food is amazing!!! (I had the chocolate chilli steak - incredible!) And the show is awesome (think Cirque de Soleil, though on a smaller scale). The music ranges from dramatic to beautiful to seductive and is the perfect accompaniment to the mind and body-bending feats performed by the artists. Though to be fair, even as I write this, I know I'm not doing it nearly enough justice. Please, do yourself a favour and go see for yourself! One of the bonuses of performing in a tent is that it makes the show mobile. I went to Madame Zingara's when it was in Cape Town, but it has since moved to Durban. Ticket's aren't cheap - they range from R300 to R350 but trust me, it's well worth it! Book early though. Tickets are scarce. Like chicken teeth.

We took a ridiculous amount of photos that night, but considering our attire and state, I'll spare my buddies (and I) the indignity of public humiliation and instead, show you what the tent looks like from the inside. Now close your eyes and picture it with people.

Hmmmm... let's see - what other good stuff is happening? Well, I'm off to the James Blunt concert soon (at the end of May) - looking forward to that. And of course, the girls are back with a vengeance in the Sex and the City movie - out May 30th! Can't wait. I've missed them! More good news is that Marian Keyes' latest novel has been released. (Overseas, that is.) It's available from online shops but I'm hoping they'll publish it locally because it's horribly expensive at the moment. Keyes is one of my all-time favourite authors and I can't wait to read her latest offering!

Other cool stuff... I was checking out the SA blogging forum I'm on and one of the other bloggers had a post about Aardman's 'Animals Save the Planet' shorts. (Aardman - ring a bell? Wallace and Gromit, Angry Kid, Creature Comforts, Morph [back in the day!!!] to name but a few.) Anyway, they've put together a few shorts with handy 'save the planet' tips. Educational and entertaining to boot! Check it out. (Thanks to Darrin at http://www.dazland.com/. That's where I spotted it.)


Other positive stuff? I woke up to the sounds of Abba this morning. Before you start dry heaving, I'll have you know I think Abba is great, so BRING IT! It was especially surprising to hear Abba as my alarm radio is tuned to a talk radio station - but they're doing this 'feel-good-morning-song' thing and today Dancing Queen cracked the nod. 'Made this Sleeping Queen's morning a little less ugly.

And now for the parting gift: hidden in between all the nasty and depressing stories on News 24 today, I came across this one. Am I the only one who thinks it's hilarious? Watch out boys and girls of London-town - don't let your ass fall victim to the mysterious butt-grabber. Word to the wise. Out.

The Barbie Chronicles

So I was at Madame Zingara the other week, and came away with a red wine lipstick, good memories and a whack-load of photos of my friends and I. (And there's no way in hell I'm posting those. Uh-uh.)

Anyway, our 'table centre-piece' featured kitsch plastic flowers and, I'm sorry to say, a near-naked Barbie-wannabee. Here's some of what our risqué table host got up to.

Introducing
The Barbie Chronicles*

Nudist Camp Barbie
frolics with nature

Camp Barbie
likes to ‘gay it up’

Ice-cream Barbie
can be a little frigid

Daredevil Barbie
likes living on the edge

Hairdresser Barbie
knows how to work a ‘fro


Exhibitionist Barbie
likes to show off.
(tart)

* It seems she’s a bit of a slapper

What's next?

When I started this blog a while back, I was hoping to keep it light-hearted and fun. A vehicle for self-expression and all that stuff. No agendas. Nothing like that. Yet living in South Africa, it is nearly impossible not to be affected by the political goings-on, both within the country and in the bordering nations. There is rarely a dull moment, and political scandals and stories of corruption regularly grace the pages.

Lately though, the Zim elections have been the centre of attention, and for good reason. After an excessively long reign, Zimbabwe may finally be freed from the clutches of its narcissistic dictator, Robert Gabriel Mugabe - or so I thought at the time of the elections. It appeared as if Bad Bob was finally being put out to pasture which, considering the atrocities he's committed, is far too kind a fate. And yet, here we are - two weeks after the elections - and still no decisive outcome.While waiting for the results to be finalised and all that, both Morgan Tsvingarai (MDC leader and official opposition to Mugabe's Zanu-PF party) and Robert Mugabe have been on the go. Tsvingarai has been meeting with African leaders in a bid to drum up support. Bob on the other hand has been flying under the radar in comparison. However, a picture of Robert Mugabe and South African president Thabo Mbeki walking hand in hand made the Sunday Times' front page, followed by a piece in which Mbeki is quoted as denying that there is a serious crisis in Zimbabwe.

'Couldn't find the pic that made the front page of the Sunday Times but I happened to find another one. It would seem Bob and Thabo regularly walk hand in hand. (And they said the romance wouldn't last...)

At what point do we (or more specifically, the government) abandon this ridiculous policy of quiet diplomacy and tackle the issue at hand? By the sounds of it, life in Zimbabwe has pretty much become unbearable. On top of the violence and underlying fear of the dictator-style government there's also the land seizures and ridiculous rate of inflation (which rose to a staggering 7,634% in July 2007). What's more, so-called 'war veterans' are once again seizing white-owned farms. These 'war veterans', however, are mostly too young to have ever fought in Zimbabwe's last war (also known as the Seond Chimurenga) which ended in 1979. The world's eyes are drawn to Zimbabwe, and by not taking a firm stand against what is happening to our neighbour, South Africa is being seen in a negative light. Especially ironic, seeing as the majority of South Africans are shocked and disgusted at what is happening in Zim. (With the exception of the crusty old Jon Qwelane. What a babbling fool.)

Hmmm... troubled times indeed.

A much less serious though equally controversial conversation hogger at the moment is the sudden sacking of popular columnist David Bullard. A regular columnist for the Sunday Times, he wrote a highly satirical piece in a which he invokes the reader to imagine a South Africa that hadn't been colonised. He paints a picture where life is simple and uncomplicated, that (to be fair) borders on patronising and backward. It's a contentious issue. A huge amount of people found the article highly offensive. And I really can see where they're coming from. Yet (playing devil's advocate here) surely as a column, it is an opinion piece. What's more, the article is satirical - and let's face it, in a society plagued (for lack of a better word) by Leon Schuster-type humour, the point of satire is almost entirely lost. And lastly, what about the editor's responsibility for what is and isn't published. Bullard's column may have been in (slightly) poor taste but while he's at home right now searching through the classifieds for a new job, his editor is sitting behind his desk in his office at the Sunday Times offices. If Bullard crossed the line with his article, the Sunday Times should never have published it. 'Doesn't seem too fair to me. At the end of the day, you don't have to like or agree with a columnist. They're not there to make you feel better about what you think. I like that they encourage thinking and debate. So much for free speech.

But hey, what can you do? No doubt Bullard will be snapped up by some other newspaper (after all, there's no such thing as bad publicity, as they say) and the troubles in Zimbabwe are likely to headline our news for quite some time to come. I guess all we can hope for is that they make it out of this period with as little violence and trauma as possible. And so it goes.

Take that, you naughty bunch!

So the other week I had a bit of a rant about this business with the FBJ holding a get-together that specifically excluded whites. It's not that I disagree with the idea of having a mutually exclusive forum, but I just felt that all things considered, and in a very South African context, excluding a specific race group from a gathering was very poor form. Especially when the guest speaker was the infamous Jacob Zuma (who is most likely already working on his inauguration speech as the country's new president. Scary.)

Anyway, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has since found the FBJ's exclusion of people on the basis of race unacceptable. Unjustified. Unconstitutional. Well, yeah... (I kinda thought that was a no-brainer.) The SAHRC have further suggested that the FBJ rethink their policies and in the meantime, behave themselves (i.e. not have any more get-togethers that exclude anyone.)

However, they haven't done much about Jon Qwelane's name-calling antics. Oh well, baby steps. (Speaking of Jon Qwelane though, what a very special person he is. I find his columns on News 24 very... moving[?]. Anyway...)

As a result, poor Abbey Makoe (chairperson of the FBJ) is a very unhappy camper. According to the Mail & Guardian (online), he's said "The FBJ hereby wishes to state that the conclusion arrived by the SAHRC represents nothing more than a judicial ambush." Shame, sounds to me like someone needs a big boy box of Gary Player tissues.

Anyway, that's just a bit of an update on that whole thing. Seeing as I'm on the whole 'state of affairs' trail, I'll wrap up with a pic someone sent me recently. What with the petrol price sky-rocketing, it's one of those pics that make you laugh... and then make you think.

Hmmm...

It's the hard knock life

Jeez. It's the end of another week. Funny, with Monday being a public holiday, the week was supposed to be shorter and yet it's been rather drawn-out and painful. Sheesh, good riddance nasty week. It hasn't been bad for any reason in particular - just one of those weeks with a yucky feeling. It's about to get a whole lot better though, cos it's the weekend, baby! I'm seconds (okay, make that an hour and 40 minutes [but who's counting?]) away from my first delicious sip of vino for the weekend, and I'm definitely looking forward to it. Not to sound like an alchie or anything.

I've pretty much been pre-occupied with work lately and so have absolutely nothing interesting to write about. This'll be a short post. I did read a pretty good book last week, though. I'll tell you about it quickly. It's called 'Escape' and is written by Carolyn Jessop. It's the most fascinating story of her life in an uber-scary cult called the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (or something like that). Coincidentally, its leader (Warren Jeffs) is currently serving time in jail which trust me, makes the world a better place. Anyway, the FLDS is a polygamist cult and Jessop describes her marriage at the age of 18 to a 50 year old man. She is the fourth of many wives. Scary. She goes on to bear him eight children, but the hell she goes through finally prompts her flee both her (so-called) marriage and the cult community. (No, I haven't given away the plot - the novel starts off with her 'escape'.)

It was such an interesting read but I have to tell you, it struck every little feminist nerve in my body. It's so hard to believe this is happening in the western world. Though I guess (to be fair), South African headlines are unbelievably gruesome on a daily - make that hourly - basis, and we supposedly also belong to the western world. We merely glance over stories of child rape and family murders - hardly news anymore. Boiling frog syndrome. That's what that is.

Okay, I got seriously side-tracked. Sorry, back to the book. It really does make for an interesting read. You can pick it up from Exclusive Books (or any other book seller for that matter). Speaking of Exclusive's...

I popped into Exclusive's the other evening after work to pick up a book and headed for Woolies afterwards, thinking I'd buy something for dinner. It was about quarter to seven, close to closing time and the store was pretty much deserted. That was, until I got to the ready-made meals section. There I found a whole bunch of single women (and one gay guy) searching the shelves for a tasty meal for one. At first it was funny. 'Check out all the single women looking for lonely dinners' I thought, and then it hit me. I was one of them. I was a single chick looking for dinner for one. Damn, that was depressing. I grabbed the first thing I saw and high-tailed it out of there. Now I know where single women go when everybody goes home to their 'plus-ones'.

Well on that somber note, I'm going to wrap-up now. I'm not off to Woolies to find my dinner for one tonight. No sir! I'm off to meet up with my fabulous friends for a catch-up over vino. (Whew)

(Cue drum roll...) Trrrrrr... TA-DAH!

(Warning: This is a long, long - oh-so-long - post. :)

Six months ago, I crammed all my favourite things into a suitcase and hopped on a plane to the UK. No, not to stay but for a much-anticipated, much-needed, kick-ass holiday. I was gone for about three weeks and covered a LOT of ground, so needless to say, I took a crazy amount of photos. Thing is, I'm still sifting through the pics, sorting my favourites from the crappy, out-of-focus ones. But in the meantime, here's a quick run-through of what went down.

First stop, Basingstoke. England. (Why? Because my brother lives there.) Anyway, I spent a few days in England which gave me the chance to visit a few 'totally-touristy-but-worth-the-trip' places.

Stonehenge. No naked, dancing hippies or geriatric druids. Just lots of camera wielding tourists and large monolithic rocks.

Inside Salisbury Cathedral (v.v. pretty!). At 123 metres, the cathedral boasts the United Kingdom's tallest church spire, has a clock dating back to 1386 AD and is home to a piece of the Magna Carta.

Off to London... (yes, that really is blue sky in London).

High in the sky on the Eye.After squeezing as much of London as I could into a few days, it was time to head for the nearest EasyJet plane, destination Bordeaux!

This was my first time in France and I was really, really, really looking forward to it. I picked up a car (hereafter known as 'le wretched car') at the airport as I thought it would be a good idea to have my own transport on the more remote part of my holiday. This sounded great on paper, but in reality it was frikken' freaky! Driving on the wrong side of le wretched car, on the wrong side of the road at Bordeaux peak hour (which is very busy, let me tell you!) was terrifying. 'Got horribly lost and kept hitting the pavement while trying to get a feel for the wrong side of the road thing. I wanted to cry when it started raining as I couldn't figure out how to switch on le windshield wipers. (You'd think it would be simple, but it wasn't.) Anyway finally, a few hours later, I made it to Bergerac where my teeny little hotel room was waiting for me. Happy days.

Bergerac was fantastic - so old and quaint. Filled to the brim with photo opportunities. So stunning. Here are a few snaps taken in and around the town centre.

From Bergerac, I hit the road and visited some of the more remote villages scattered around the French countryside. The beauty of these places was over-whelming. Tiny little French villages completely forgotten by time. Ones that stood out in particular with the medieval city in Sarlat and the too-gorgeous Roque-Gageac. Absolute must-sees if you're ever in the area.

A gaggle(?) of geese on the way to Sarlat...
One of the courtyards in the medieval city. What's amazing about this place is that it was built around the 9th Century! Phenomenal.
Another of the many little towns built on the banks of the Dordogne River is the idyllic Roque-Gageac - in my opion , one of the prettiest places in the world. Houses are built into the cliff overlooking the Dordogne, neighbouring the troglodyte caves. Incredible!

Chateau de Beynac. With pristine views that overlook the Dordogne and the surrounding French countryside, this chateau is in the perfect location.

Ah, le wretched car...

A Bordeaux tram - highly efficient. After a few days of that, I returned le wretched car to the people at Avis - Bordeaux - and hopped on a SNCF train to Paris. (Okay, maybe 'hopping' is the wrong term. I missed my booked train and had to spend far too many Euros to catch the next one. All very dramatic. Anyhoo...) Paris. City of love and lights. It wasn't quite love at first sight because let's face it, Paris is a little dirty and the people are (a little?) rude. But the underlying charm of Paris soon hit its mark, and I had a fantastic time. With only about five days in Paris, it was hard to get to everything I wanted to see. But nonetheless, I saw a lot. Up the tower, down the Seine, a game at Rugby Town (it was World Cup time), off to the Palace of Versailles, up the steps to Sacre Coeur etc. And don't forget the Louvre (but I'll leave that for another post). In all, it was AMAZING!!!!

Here are some of my favourite pics:

The Sacré-Cœur Basilica. The Stravinsky Fountain with the Centre Georges Pompidou in the background.River boat on the Seine. Hmmm... C'est la vie, hey?View from the top floor of the Eiffel Tower. The nerve-wracking elevator ride is worth the views!Taken in Versailles...This was taken after the Scotland - Italy game, which as you can see, Scotland WON!Couldn't help but notice lots of beautiful carrousels. This pic doesn't do it nearly enough justice, though.View from a river trip down the Seine...Some of the street artists outside the Sacré-Cœur Basilica included mimes and this harpist. Très parisien!Some or other tower people keep talking about...Okay, this may seem a bit macabre, but it was actually quite cool. I stopped by Cimetière de Montparnasse (Montparnasse Cemetery) which is the final resting place of many important and influential people. These include Samuel Beckett, Charles Baudelaire, César Frank and - as you can see in the pic below - Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.It was hard to leave Paris but there was an upside. Next I was headed for one of my favourite cities - Edinburgh. 'Collected another rental car at the airport but instead of settling down in the city, got straight on the motorway and headed for the Isle of Skye. Wow. After the hectic pace of Paris, the Isle of Skye was a complete shock to the system - and a beautiful one at that. Cool, dark moors and a sheep population that vastly out numbers the human count, the Isle of Skye is easily one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited. I was only there for a short time and wish I could have stayed for longer. It's definitely a place I want to go back to some day.

On the way to Isle of Skye: Eilean Donan Castle, which dates back to the 13th Century. The road to the Isle was mesmerising - very beautiful.Not much on the Isle of Skye - dark moors, scattered farm houses and a whack-load of sheep.Most of the signs are in Gaelic, a language commonly spoken on the Isle of Skye.
(Note the lurking sheep. Really, they're EVERYWHERE!)Spean Bridge (near Fort William) is home to the Commando Memorial - a moving tribute to the Commandos who died in the Second World War. As the memorial reminds us, their motto was 'United We Conquer' and 'This Country was their Training Ground'. What was particularly poignant was that a few metres from the statue was a little circular garden of rememberance, scattered with home-made crosses and messages to fallen soldiers both from the world wars and recent wars. There were a few messages to young soldiers who had died in the last year in Iraq and other war-torn areas. It was really, really sad.Onto lighter stuff... 'Came across this lone piper en route to Skye. Great stuff! After tearing myself away from the majestic Isle of Skye, I took the A9 (or whatever the road is) back down to Edinburgh where I stayed in a charming albeit tiny apartment quite close to the hub of the city. Unfortunately though, I didn't spend much time in Edinburgh as I have a lot of family in Glasgow, and so spent most of my time there. (Plus, as I was driving most of the time, I didn't get much a chance to take pics. Pity. Anyway...) Glasgow is also pretty fabulous though and so it was time pretty well spent.

Here are some pics taken on and around Princes Street.

As do all great holidays, this one also came to an end too soon. It was nice to go home, but I have to admit, now I have itchy feet and can't wait for the next trip. I just need to wait for my butchered piggy bank to heal and who knows, maybe if I sell my left kidney I might just be able to go somewhere nice sometime soon.