Trees - beware!!!

Some of you might remember my adventure last year in KZN when I fell out of a tree at our churches' annual Youth Day get-together. It was disastrous, funny and victorious weekend in one - remember our girls' volleyball team, of which I was captain, also won?

Well, its that time of the year again, Jugendtag will be taking place tomorrow in Pretoria. Its a welcome change, since its close to home and we dont have to worry about making serious travel arrangements etc. And most of us will only be leaving early tomorrow morning to participate in the event. We will stay over on Saturday night, and return Sunday afternoon after the loooooong church service.

So its another weekend of partying, though Im hoping to take it easy as Im taking strain already. I need sleep as much as I need a holiday, i.e. BADLY! I got a few minutes of relaxation today, since its the last day of our financial year, so we all got treated to a 5 minute head and back massage. I was in heaven. Aaaaahhhhh.

I hope to return with good news on Monday morning (and no tree stories!) but only time will tell. I fear for my volleyball team, we have all gotten lazy. Anyhoo, have a good weekend all!!!

What's the point of toe socks?

I just dont get them. Besides providing entertainment value by watching your toes wiggle in an assortment of colours, they offer little else, in my opinion. Last week we each got a pair of toe socks at work, as a gift for the winter solstice. I got a green and white pair, but since I am a fan of purple, I managed to swap someone else's, before they arrived at work - one of the few perks of being the first one in the office every morning.

So anyway, toe socks are a novelty that I would never think of buying for myself. There is something about them that is just creepy. But since I got them as a freebie, I thought I'd give them a try. First of all, just like I struggle to get my fingers in gloves, I struggled three times as much to get my toes into the tiny spaces offered for each. I held in my breath, and squeezed with everything I had. Once in, I thought all the blood was rushing away from my toes. The sewing on each toe was so tight, that I could barely wiggle each one.

I was in great discomfort for almost an hour (I hate to give up, even on such trivial tasks) until the socks finally stretched and allowed my toes some wiggle room. But not much. As for keeping me warm, they do a very bad job at it. I slept with them on the whole night and woke up the next morning with very sore, very pale toes.

I think I will stick with my thick wooly socks from now on. At least my toes can wiggle freely in those.

Blimey! Its cold!!!

I have never been fond of winter. Cold weather makes me miserable, and the thought of piling on clothes makes me cranky. I will prolong putting on warm clothes for as long as I can but last night I had to make a beeline for my thick fleece jersey to stop me from shivering uncontrolably. I thought my Dad was joking when he looked out the window and said it was snowing while we were watching Prison Break last night. He is well known for talking kak.

So I was quite surprised when I was woken up by rain this morning. And even more so when I went outside, facing bitterly cold weather, and saw that Weasel's car was covered in ice. His screenwipers were frozen solid and would not budge. So he cautiously drove to work. There wasnt much snow to look at near our place, but as we moved closer to Randburg I saw the pavements and plants covered in snow. Radio broadcasts announced that several parts of the Eastern and Southern areas of Joburg were completely covered in snow. I wish I could have seen that.

I didnt get a chance to take photos, but dear ol Berny took some with her phone and agreed to let me use them for my blog. But unfortunately, I forgot to save them to my PC, they are still in my email. And since Im on 3G at the moment and I can only access my email via LAN, wara wara wara to make a long story short, I cannot post them now. Im too lazy. But Im sure many of you have seen all the beautiful sights this morning.

But enough now! BRING ON SUMMER!

I love my penis

That was the catch phrase of the day at the Seasons Wither Rock Fest at Tempos on Saturday. Yes, I said penis. We all said penis a lot. Inki, Rudi and I narrowly beat Martin and Berny to Tempos, just in time to get some free Jager shots and enter the raffle for the guitar (unfortunately none of us won it, damn). It was still bright and early, just after 1pm when the first band, Fearfall, kicked off on the Marshall Music Stage. We parked near the stage and got us some Seasons Wither tshirts (the ones Berny and Inki are wearing below). I chose to keep my Aion Truth tshirt on, and left my Seasons Wither tshirt in Martin's car.

Just before End of Autumn's turn on stage came up, we hijacked Timmy the drummer and got him to pose for a pic with us. For the past few months we have been chatting to him in the UJfm chat room so it was cool to finally put a face and voice to the maroon bold print, lol. I was quite impressed with his band. We all moved to the front of the stage, watching cautiously for that ominous hole under the stage, and rocked to the tunes. Timmy broke his snare drum, and then threw it at the crowd. Berny got it, and promised to split half of it with me. Im still waiting. Hmmm. After they finished their set, Rudi went on stage to get it signed. We cant take him anywhere. Lol.

Matt from Chromium was attacked next. I cant say why we made him blush, but he definitely went red in the face. Could have been the sun, but we know better. Hahahaha. We discussed random stuff like chatting on msn/mxit, and about our little UJfm debate on how Chromium is NOT too loud in the morning. Its better than coffee for a good wake up call!

Ah, and here is my penis. As I was making a trip to the loo, I bumped into Jean from Knave. After a hug, he sneaked in this sticker and stuck it on my arm. I went back to my peeps and proudly showed it off. Of course, they all wanted some too. After searching desperately for Jean, we managed to hound Louis from Knave, who also posed for a pic, hehehhhehh. We all love penis.

I think we missed the next few bands as we posed for all these pics and met up with other people etc. After a few months of chatting online, I also got to meet Stix. As soon as he arrived, I dragged him to watch Tony Danza, a band that I think is hilarious and quite enjoy watching. Berny, the lucky bugger, won an Ozzy CD that was thrown into the crowd. How that girl manages to catch all these things escapes me, she is too damn fast. But Im glad she won it. We are both huge Ozzy fans.

I watched a bit of Unlisted too, but after that I didnt really pay much attention. The rugby had started so we moved to the bar, but I couldnt concentrate on that either. My attention span was worse than a 4 year-old with ADD. I moved around a lot and eventually settled down when Aion Truth came on stage just after 7pm. It was already a long day, which at the same time was flying (if that makes any sense) and I was exhausted. But we still rocked to my favourite band, of course!!! While Berny and I were bobbing our heads up and down, this creepy guy stood right behind us with a weird smile on his face. We gave him a dirty look and then put our arms around each other and moved from side to side to give him the message that he must buzz off. But he wouldnt leave. I turned around once more and thats when my eyes opened wide and my mouth dropped. This creepy guy was actually Judd, the former drummer from Munkinpure. He had told us he was going to meet us Tempos, but we just didnt recognise him because of his unshaven face!!! Hahahhahaha. We had a good laugh about it, then posed for mountains of photos.

After Aion Truth, again my concentration lacked, so I moved between stages and watched a bit of Deity's Muse, Torment, Falling Short, Knave and Hikatori. Not that I dont like the bands, because I seriously do, but I was just too hyper to stay in one place at a time. Plus there were so many people, too many people actually. It made me dizzy. I was most disappointed that I wasnt able to watch Falling Short and Torment's full sets. I have to make it up to these boys BIG TIME.

I posed for more random pics with random people, like Wes from Torment and then Charles (Torment) and Bianca, then finally settled down to watch Chromium. They had such a huge crowd! It was electrifying! I then remembered that the UJ dj's were MC'ing that night, lol. What a space cadet I am. I managed to bump into Sam, and then Klaus, but that was about it. Oh well. Chromium was on fire and got the crowd going. I loved every minute of it.

Unfortunately, we left after Chromium ended cause everyone, including myself, was tired. So we missed out on Inersha, Monkeyfinger, Guernica and Chokehold. But it was still one of the best shows I have ever attended. No wait, let me correct that, it WAS THE BEST show I have ever attended!!! I hope there will be more like these in the future!

I MET NICK!!!!!

Im so super-excited that I just met Nick, the sexy DJ from UJFM who tickles my senses every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning from 6-9. This morning topic of discussion was in how many languages you could say "I love UJFM". Being the linguistic fanatic that I am, I phoned in and had a nice conversation, uttering the phrase in Spanish, Portuguese and German, as well as a poor attempt at Japanese, after Berny requested it. He liked the way I sounded and immediately said I must marry him. When I asked him if that was a proposal he got all shy and laughed. lol

OK, enough about that, Im getting a bit off topic now. The reason for his visit at our prestigious offices was to deliver the 5 CDs I won last month in the Genius of the Month Competition. Yes, yours truly is the Genius for the month of May, after a nerve-wrecking fight to the top, sms'ing in my answers faster than the speed of lightning. In the end, it was more of a fight of who had the fastest fingers, rather than who was the brightest. I still came out tops.

This sweetie pie insisted on delivering the CDs personally, even though I could have gone to UJ to fetch them myself (he is leaving for Germany for 2 weeks on Monday, so if I fetched them, eh wouldnt be there, obviously). So I was quite chuffed when I got a message from a fellow UJ chat room buddy that works at the bank here too and is friends with Nick. I raced down to his office and finally met the gorgeous Nick. I was shaking all over but I think I managed to compose myself. We chatted for a bit and then he handed over the CDs. As we walked over to the lifts, he hugged me one more time and I almost last my lift in the process. As the doors closed I let out a big sigh, and scolded myself for being so silly. Lol. I hope he comes to visit again soon!!

So what CDs did I get? They all seem to be old, but good selections nonetheless:
Skillet - C0matose
Stone Temple Pilots - Thank you
Hard-Fi - Stars of CCTV
Green Day - International Superhits!
Linkin Park - Live in Texas

Yay! Me so happy!!!

Seasons Wither Rock Festival

I have been looking forward to this gig for months now ever since I heard it was happening. Now its almost here, just two more sleeps!!!!! It has a great selection of talented and diverse bands to suit most people's tastes. I hope that many of you will be making it to this prestigious event!!!

Doors open at 12 and bands begin playing at 1:00pm. I for one, will definitely be supporting my favourite band, Aion Truth!!! Berny and I will be right in front, like the two good sergeants that we are. Also, there is a guitar up for grabs. A R8,500 Jackson guitar, which the first 200 people are eligible to win! Plus free Jagermeister shots to the first 100 people and many more cool stuff to be given away!!! Some of the UJfm DJs will be there too. What more can you ask for?

Here is the line-up:

** THE MUSIC CONNECTION STAGE **

11:30 - CHOKEHOLD
10:40 - INERSHA
9:50 - CHROMIUM
8:40 - KNAVE
7:40 - DEITY'S MUSE
6:50 - NAMUH
6:00 - BLUE BIRD THEORY
5:10 - UNDERBELLY
4:20 - UNLISTED
3:30 - TONY DANZA
2:40 - ALL FORLORN
1:50 - END OF AUTUMN
1:00 - FEARFALL

**THE MARSHALL MUSIC STAGE **

11:30 - GUERNICA
10:40 - MONKEY FINGER
9:50 - FALLING SHORT
8:50 - HIKATORI
8:00 - TORMENT
7:10 - AION TRUTH
6:20 - ELEGY
5:30 - UNDERTONE
4:40 - ONLY FOREVER
3:50 - ALBINOBEACH
3:00 - WARTHANE
2:10 - NEW FOUND DISORDER
1:20 - AUTUMN SUN

See you in the mosh pit!!! (or on the edge of it, Im chicken-sh*t).

I beg for a better day today!!!!

Yesterday was a day to be reckoned with. After a sleepless night of tossing and turning painfully, while screaming into my pillow, I woke up feeling miserable and in need of meds. My lower back pain is back with a vengeance, giving me sleepless nights and unabling me to walk, stand or sit properly. Im not too sure what triggered it this time, but since I havent been doing my exercises for months now, its not surprise that my back is telling me to get back on the treadmill!!!

I crawled to work and put on a brave face - I didnt want anyone to tell me again that I have to go to physio or go for a voltaren injection (though I really should). But my grimaces and slight limp gave it all away.

Comfort food always helps so I got a sticky caramel muffin in the cafeteria downstairs. The hot chocolate smells coming from the coffee area attracted me so I got me a cup as well. The lift took forever to get there and I was so afraid I was going to have one of my klutz moments and spill the hot choc all over the place. Eventually I made it to my desk, safe and sound, painfully sat and my desk, peeled of the lid of the hot choc cup and chatted a bit on UJfm.

Something triggered my excitement because before I knew it, I had knocked over my cup and spilled hot chocolate all over my desk. I shouted a big loud F*CK! and immediately people came running to my rescue with napkins and tissues. Miraculously, it missed my laptop, but my desk phone was a sticky mess. Half of a box of tissues later, all the hot chocolate was wiped off, but very sticky, so I used a wet cloth from the kitchen to get rid of all that. I then sat on my chair with a defeated look, crying over spilt milk (and hot chocolate lol). OK, I didnt cry, but I was quite upset with my clumsiness.

The day didnt get any better, as my pain worsened and I was bored to tears. I hate quiet weeks, I'd rather be busy with work. It just keeps me out of mischief.

So Im hoping for a better day today. The back pain is still there, but things are looking up. This morning I got to work to find a pair of toe socks and one of those coloured block cube thingies that you have to sort out. Weird gifts and Im still not too sure why we all got them, but who cares? At least I got something to keep me occupied today!! (oh, and my boss is off ill today, hee hee hee. Hope karma doesnt get me for saying this).

Why I was fired...

For the last departmental picnic, management decided that due to liability issues, we could have alcohol, but only one (1) drink per person.
I was fired for ordering the cups.

NOTE: this is a joke. Just some light humour....lol

Lets set the record straight

It seems that, by reading my blogs, some people are getting the wrong impression as to what sort of a person I am these days. So let me give you all a crash course on who I am, right now. But before I do that, let me tell you about the person I used to be, back in high school. I was very shy, listened to pop music *cringe*, and worked very hard in school to get top grades. So you could say I was a conscientous, responsible child with her head screwed on straight.

So what changed? Not much really. I still work hard, but I also party hard. As soon as I began varsity, I slowly came out of my shell and started to party quite a bit, yet my studies never faltered. In fact, I did better than I did in high school. I just wasnt the shy girl I used to be anymore. Soon I got my degree and started to work almost immediately at a bank.

This set up a whole lot of new challenges for me, that I took head on, and in the six years that I have been working there, I managed to secure a business analyst job at one of the more prestigious divisions of the bank, together with some nice perks. Cushy job, that allows me a lot of freedom to do what I want to do when I am not busy, which happens a lot lately, and so sometimes I get distracted with other things like the internet. But I am not so silly that I will let myself get caught up in it and lose my job as a consequence. I need this job, as much as I hate it sometimes, so I am not going to do anything to jeopardise it. And yes, I did one stupid blunder a few weeks ago at our work weekend away, but I learnt my lesson immediately and I was forgiven just as quick. I wont make the same mistake again, Im not stupid.

However, I dont plan to stay in banking forever. Even my boss, of all people (!!) encouraged me to follow my dreams while Im still young, and leave if I have to! I told him that I always wanted to become a journalist / photographer, and he suggested I work towards it! My boss understands me, and we have a great working relationship. He has always given me great reviews, and when he kakked me out for the very first time a few weeks ago, I felt so bad that I had upset him, because I enjoy having him as a boss. I dont take him for granted. He is probably one of the main reasons why Im still here in this job.

Now we come to the crux of the matter: drinking. Sorry to say, but this forms a big part of my life. My parents introduced me to alcohol from a young age, and have never really had issues with me drinking. We have a lot of social gatherings at work, where drinking is involved and dammit, we even drink at church! This year Im even organising the annual beerfest at the church!

But there is one thing that many need to understand: I am not an alcoholic loser. I realise that 90% of my blogs these days are about me getting vrot at a gig / party because frankly, I dont have the time or energy to write about the other aspects of my life or any other interests I might have. But maybe I should.

If I was really into heavy drinking, I would be drinking every day. I should be hungover right now. But Im not. Weeks may go by before I even touch a drink. And occassionally, I can actually party without even bothering to drink. I dont need to drink to have a good time. I just enjoy drinking - is that really bad? I dont drive (and believe me, when I do start to drive, thats going to stop), I dont hurt anyone with my drinking (except maybe my liver, lol).

As Im reading back what I have just written, I am thinking to myself: "why am I even bothering?" My real friends know me, they know Im not a danger to myself and that I still have lots of ambitions that I am working towards. And they are not losers themselves either. They are all hardworking, honest people who will stick by me through thick and thin. So why am I trying to defend my actions here? To be honest, I have no clue. Im tempted to delete this all and just shout a big "Screw this". But I will leave it. Read it, rip it to shreds, do what you like. Im comfortable with my life and am happy with the friends who believe in me and trust me not to go and screw things up.

In the words of Joy's mother from My Name is Earl (Berny will get this one, lol):

Dont you judge me.

Sleep deprivation and caffeine overdoses

I have spent the last five hours or so trying very very hard not to fall asleep on my desk. All my troubles and caffeine overdoses went down the drain when I decided to catch up on my reading the economics articles. With one hand holding my heavy head up, as I looked down to read all these technical jargon, the words became more jumbled than alphabet soup and slowly my eyes closed as I dozed off. I should have read the cosmo.

Coke seems to help but Im really struggling today. Im sleep deprived! Last weekend I got a few hours of shut-eye and didnt get a chance to catch up much during the week. This weekend was even worse. After Friday night's road trip, I had to get up early in the morning for our church's Spring Festival / Beerfest meeting. At least that is going well and I was commended on my good organising skills. After Ferdi and I came back from that meeting, I was miff to find out that Weasel was still sleeping! Not fair!

I was hoping to take a nap but the day just got busier and busier. The newly recovered Shawn invited us over for a braai since this was his official birthday and his parents werent home. So off we went and celebrated some more. Ingrid and I spent the whole night doing, well, nothing! We suckered the boys (Ferdi mostly. Apparently we are now top of the "Pile-on List" lol) into doing everything for us: cooking, cleaning up, pouring drinks for us. We even got Ferdi to pour us tequila while they were playing poker and we were just lying on the couch watching Mtv. Lol. A few more chores and Ferdi will be able to received his Domestication Certificate!

In the end I was so tired (from calling Ferdi every five minutes, haha) that I dozed off on the couch. But it wasnt much of a rest as I was still semi-conscious and was awaken every few minutes or so. I got to bed late that night again, and once more, had to get up early on Sunday morning for our special Youth Service at church. Our youth meeting that afternoon was an hour earlier than usual so I had little time after the service to really do anything besides eat and watch a bit of TV. I hurt both arms again playing volleyball. The cold weather makes it a hell of a lot worse. And Im not too sure about our volleyball team this year - will we win like we did last year? I hope to at least make the finals!

As I sat last night in my room watching a movie, I could feel my eyes battling it out to stay open and thus try to concentrate on the movie. I made it, but just barely. The fact that I now wake up at 5am every morning just to get to work in 15 minutes instead of 40, is not going to help my situation much. But I suppose its nothing I cant handle. Sleep deprivation has never killed anyone, right?

*runs off to get more coffee*

Back in da hood

Going back to my old neighbourhood turned out the be scarier than we anticipated. I think we were there for a total of five minutes before we were out of the quicker than you could say "Bring out the shotguns!" I dont know what was scarier, the pub down the road from my old house, or London Calling full of metalheads in what looked like a scene from Little Shop of Horrors. Yes, they even scared me. I was a little disappointed that we didnt go in to see the bands, but trust me, that is not a place you want to be hanging around. Its amazing how much the 'hood has changed since we moved out 6 years ago.

In those 5 minutes, I gave the girls a quick tour of my old neighbourhood (the boys were in Weasel's car) and then we decided to go to the KEG in Bedfordview. On the way we passed Jeppe Prep, my old school, as well as Jeppe Boys and Girls. Of course, I went to Jeppe Girls and Weasel and Ferdi went to Jeppe Boys. Lol. It was funny they way we drove all this way, and ended up at the KEG, so far away from home.

At the KEG, we went right to the top, where it was rather quiet, and soon it got rather noisy with us hooligans. We started off with Jagerbombs and proceeded from there. I thought this was a much better option rather than to go watch bands, as we got the chance to chat all night, talk crap and make jokes. I must say we all rather enjoyed it.

After all those drinks, I was surprisingly fine and was rather alert on the way home. Some people, I wont mention names (lol), were drunk and disorderly, and we had to stop about 5 times before we got home. The creative juices flowed in Berny's veins as she composed (and sang) a lovely song for us, so we even had "in flight" entertainment! How lucky are we? lol. Part of my co-pilot duties were to keep the driver calm, Uli, and quieten down the rowdy passengers. But it was all good in the end as we made it home safe and sound.

As for a certain birthday boy, well, he wanted to sleep in the toilet, even dared to ask for a chair. I just thought it was really funny that he got up the next morning, bright and early and feeling fine, while Weasel was eventually dragged out of bed, at in 1 in the afternoon. Sheesh, these slackers...haha.

Tonight! Break out the shotguns!!!!

Ok, enough will all the bull...t!

...we're going to town! Back to my old neighbourhood, that is! Its been almost 6 years since I was last there. I wonder how much its changed since the crazy Argentineans left.

What's the occassion? Inki and Shawns combined birthday party at London Calling! We have never been there before, so this will be a new experience for us all. While last year's birthday party was a bit disastrous for me (lol who can forget? Definitely not Weasel!), I have a good feeling about this one. And yes, alcohol will be involved, but so will good friends and lots of laughter!

PLUS! Billy Talent II Album Promo party with NEW FOUND DISORDER, IS THAT BLOOD?, DEBRIS and 7 MONKEY FURY! R20 entrance! I cant wait to see Is that Blood? again. They are such a kickass band!!!

Lets make this a good one!!!

In and out of the dog box

As most of you know, I got kakked out from a dizzy height on Monday afternoon for sneaking out on Saturday night. My boss was furious. I, of course, felt guilty, especially since I missed out on such a great karaoke evening!!! And I didnt get to perform my famous rendition of "I touch myself", something Im quite well known for in the office.

I have never seen my boss this upset. In fact, it was the first time he has ever been upset with me. I took it quite seriously, and felt so bad about it, that I had to do something to rectify the situation. You see, my boss is well known for his sensitivity and holding grudges so I had to react quickly.

Suggestions flew in from all over the globe (haha): show some cleavage, sing "I touch myself" for him and do that special little dance, place a muffin on his desk and look at him with puppy dog eyes while saying "Sorry".

Eventually I went to an easy option that proved to be well and trusted. I got to work at the crack of dawn this morning and placed a box of Lidnt chocolates with a short note explaining how sorry and bad I felt for letting him down. And I wore a mini skirt. He wasnt there yet and I waited anxiously for his arrival.

Several hours later, my office phone rings and my heart literally stopped when I saw his name on the display. I took a deep breath and answered. He told me he got the chocs, said thank you and not to worry about it anymore. Phew! I was out of the dog box! Of course, he wanted something from me (work, you dirty minded-people) but thats beside the point. All is well now!

Well, at least I hope so. I know I will have to watch what I do from now on and think twice before I decide to sneak out from anywhere that's work related. I have definitely learnt my lesson!

These bloody Capetonians!!

That was my favourite saying this weekend, but as much as some annoyed me, my weekend was the best ever, thanks to my awesome Cape Town friends. You guys ROCK!!!

Friday afternoon, I left work early together with my work team-mates, for our annual weekend away. This time we went to the Arabella Hotel in the Western Cape, about 15 minutes away from Hermanus. I was drunk before we even took off as we sat and drank at McGintys before boarding the plane. I was a bit nervous about the flight, as always, but listening to my Ipod on the way and reading Spud – The Madness Continues, most definitely helped to calm me down. I decided not to drink on the plane as I couldn’t find a barf bag. Lol.

We landed just after 4, and soon we were on our way to the hotel. By then I was sober and feeling rather miserable because half of the team wasn’t joining us this time (remember we split our division at the beginning of the year) and that included my partner in crime, Karen. I had no clue who I was going to party with that night, but since Im a party animal by nature, at the back of my mind I knew it was going to be alright. But the weather didn’t help my mood. It was miserable, but at least not as cold as the Capetonians had warned us about! These bloody Capetonians! Haha.

The drive there was quicker than we thought. We checked in and relaxed in our luxurious rooms before dinner. The hotel was like paradise. I don’t even want to know how much it costs to stay there per night. After a nice long bath, I got ready and joined the others at the bar. I settled with my SoCo and engaged in boring conversation. I was thankful when we were finally called for dinner in one of the conference rooms. Dinner wasn’t anything grand (though at R350 p/head, you’d think it would be) but dessert was to die for. The best was these tiny amarula cakes. Yum!

The DJ then cranked up the tunes and people opened the dancefloor. For the first time ever, it wasn’t me. I wasn’t getting drunk quick enough and the music was not up to my taste. So I sat and sulked. I really wished Karen was there. Eventually some dude dragged me to the dancefloor. So I downed my drink and ordered another one. The quicker I got drunk the sooner I was going to enjoy this. Eventually I was trashed and even let some of the boys twirl me around, yes, I did the langarm.

I don’t remember much else, except that I had a heart-to-heart with my boss (I must not go near him when Im drunk), chatted with a guy whose wife is also Argentinean, headbanged to AC/DC and Bon Jovi (hee hee), and drank two Jagerbombs in a row which sealed my fate. I ended up falling asleep on the grass outside near the lake, and waking up at 3am when it started to rain. I went back to my room and had to wake my friend up cause my card wouldn’t work. I fell asleep immediately in my glorious bed.

And it felt like I woke up 5 minutes later, at 7am. I ignored my alarm and went back to sleep. At 8 I forced myself to get up, shower and head down to breakfast. I was aching all over (why do I have to dance so much?) and struggled to eat anything. At 9:30 we were back on the bus and headed to our first wine farm, part of our wine tour. Most of us groaned with the pain, nursing terrible hangovers and injuries. Our tour guide started his commentary as soon as we drove off, and even though he promised he was going to keep quite for a while (we all cheered), 2 minutes later he was back on the microphone (groan). But soon he had us in stitches – not intentionally though. As we were approaching the wine farm, he told us all to “sit down because we were now entering a gravel road and its quite steep”. Nobody was standing up – no one had even thought of standing up. Did he think we were 12 year olds? Lol.

He then told us about the swans in that wine farm. He said we should tell him if we are going to go look for swans (?? More laughter). Someone offered R100 to the first lucky bugger that spotted one. In the end, turns out there weren’t any swans left. The otters got them.

This dude should do stand up comedy.
We sampled some red and white wine, got blown away by strong winds and then got back on the bus and headed off to a wine farm in Hermanus. Don’t ask me what all these wine farms and wines were called, because I cannot remember, and don’t really care. Just give me wine and I will sample it. Though I am not a big fan of red wine. Merlot gives me headaches.

We were done early, so we toured a bit of Hermanus and listened to some boring history lessons from our guide. Apparently Hermanus has a railway station, but no railway lines, because Mr Hoi did not want the “peasants” to ruin the town. I cant believe I paid attention to all this. Hahaha. Since the party that night was to include karaoke (which I was going to miss, thank god) one of the ladies started singing “The Hills are alive” (with the sound of music). Us peeps in the back of the bus joined her. We were so out of tune, it was beautiful.

Lunch was at the Hornbull, which was very nice, I must say. We had a set menu and I opted for some vegetable curry with cous-cous and coconut (luckily I couldn’t taste the coconut). We had more wine (groan) and a delicious dessert of chocolate wafers with cream (me – minus the cream, ugh). Lunch dragged as most of us were about to doze off. I was thankful when finally it was time to go and fell asleep for a little while on the short drive back to the hotel.

I had to hurry because I had about 15 minutes to pack my bags and rush down to the spa for my facial. The facial was so relaxing and I dozed off when the therapist put a mask on my face and left me alone for about 10 minutes. After we were done, I was really sleepy and went to the change rooms to put my clothes back on. I was shocked to find one of the guys in there and looked at him in a confused, sleepy daze. He told me I must be in the wrong place so I gave him another puzzled look and walked out. Just then it hit me that I had walked into the men’s changerooms!!!! I blushed furiously and rushed into the ladies’ changerooms before anyone else noticed. Thank god he had been fully clothed!!!

I ran back to my room, finished packing, and went to watch the rugby. I couldn’t find any of the guys at the bar – they weren’t even showing the rugby! Some old farts were watching the tennis!!! So I phoned one of the guys and went to his room and watched it there while my friend napped in our room. But before the game ended, Tink and Chim arrived to pick me up so I left and went to meet them. They helped me with my bags and as I was checking out, I saw the barman looking at me with a worried look on his face. Yes, he was losing one of his biggest customers.

The drive to Cape Town was nice and short, and I was surprisingly awake and chatty. It was so nice to catch up with the girls. As soon as we arrived, we decided to cure one of our cravings: we had waffles at Milky Lane!! Now all we needed was lasagne! Lol. With our tummies full, we dropped off all our stuff at Tink’s sisters place then joined Mr Cloudgazer at News Café in Canal Walk for cocktails. I didn’t enjoy my first one, a very milky Screaming Orgasm. Chim spilt her daiquiri (sacrilege) but it was topped up by the kind barmen. I handed my orgasm to Tink (that sounds disturbing) and ordered some Gigglejuice which soon had me giggling like a 12 year old. Tequila soon followed, naturally.

It was then time for some drunken phone calls and the lucky recipients were Berny, Vomit and Inki. I cannot be held responsible for any information I divulged, as I cannot remember. The more we drank, the more we giggled and the more crazy the conversations got. I just wish I had kept quite about my “favourite song”.

We waited until Misses finally gave us the call so we could head off to her place for more cocktails. We made a pit stop at McDonalds (chips craving sorted) and arrived all drunk and disorderly at the Walshes and met up with the rest of the Cape Town JNFers. Misses made us a killer Chocolate Martini and I was proud to have eventually finished it. Little Misses aka Emily was still awake and loved to pose for pics. She is so adorable!

After some pics and more giggles, we were kicked out and went our separate ways. I stayed with Tink at her sister’s place and we were up till the early hours of the morning talking. Eventually I couldn’t keep my eyes open and went to sleep. The few hours that I got weren’t enough but I got up anyway. After a shower I was a bit more awake. I packed my bags nicely and then we headed off to Primi at Canal Walk for some brunch. We walked around the centre until it was time to go to the airport. I was worried about what my boss and co would say about me sneaking off the day before and wondered if I still had a job!!!

On the way to the airport I cringed at how slow most of the Capetonians drove!! It drove me nuts! Once we arrived, I was relieved that my crowd hadn’t arrived yet. I phoned my friend to find out what was happening and she said my boss kept on asking where I was. She told him I had an early night and slept till late. He didn’t click that I wasn’t with them most of Sunday.

Finally they all arrived and I stepped in and joined them at the check out counter as if I had been there all the time with them. Some had to ask me, very loudly, where I had been, but my boss was still none the wiser, or at least, he pretended to be so. I then said my goodbyes to Tink and entered the gates with the rest of the gang.

We flew in a large, almost new airbus and I soon dozed off. My aches were getting worse and I struggled to keep my eyes open. We eventually touched down in Joburg just after 5 and were bussed to the airport to collect our luggage. The bus was full of Americans who just wouldn’t shut up. I cant stand the nasal American drone. These bloody Yankees!

Waiting for our luggage took forever, and I could see Weasel waiting impatiently outside with arms folded. It was almost 7 when I got home. All I had energy for was unpacking my bags. I did that in record time and was in bed by 8. Bliss. Aaah.
But why do I still feel hangover, exhausted and sore today? : (

Dealing with addictions

I am not talking of the serious kind, like sex, drugs and alcohol (I will save it for another time when I am feeling less insane). Rather, I mean the kind of addictions that keep me distracted from my work! I am talking about chat rooms, forums, myspace, facebook, skype, msn, mxit, dammit, the list just goes on and on! Its become so bad that I have even neglected this blog of mine for weeks. Its not on!

What happens now is that as soon as I sit my ass in front of the computer at work, I immediately log on to UJfm chat room and slowly progress onto the rest of my addictive sites. Before I realise it, its almost lunchtime and I start to panic and wonder how the hell I am going to get my reports done before the end of the day. I count to ten, eat my lunch, and carry on chatting!

Sometimes I do snap out of it and manage to squeeze in an hour's work, but most of the time I put it off until the next day and the next, until I eventually have a near-fatal heart failure and set a whole day aside and work furiously trying to meet deadlines. I just dont know how much longer I can keep this up. The upside of all this is that during the past few months I have made so many new friendships over the net and even met several of these cool people.

I have come to realise that this addicition is hiding an underlying problem in my life - I am bored and unsatisfied with my job. Its time to make a change. I have thought about it, and even though its definitely not going to happen overnight, I have something in the pipeline. It will take at least 5 years, but Im going to make it happen, if its the last thing I do.

In the meantime, you can catch me in a chat room near you.