*~Blue Saturday~*

On Saturday evening, my mom, sister and I along with our partners went for dinner at Blues in Camps Bay. This was our first time experiencing Blues and I was pretty excited, because I had heard good things about it. Unfortunately I have to say that it was not all that I had expected. The restaurant was hot and stuffy and very noisy. I suppose the noise was normal, but they recently renovated and this made the restaurant smaller which I thought maybe added to the stuffiness and excessive noise. We ordered drinks and unfortunately after asking for various beverage types, the restaurant did not have stock of many that I mentioned.

Away with the negatives, we had drinks, enjoyed the company and just looked passed the things that had gone wrong so far. We had some salads to share for starters which were delicious, however, I cannot say the same for the main course. Most of us had a seafood platter and I must say that it was by far the worst seafood I have ever had. There were no sauces, even the mussels which normally come in a creamy or garlic butter sauce were dry. The fish tasted old and the chips looked like they had been fried and re-fried in old oil. Nothing tasted good. When we asked for some tartar sauce, we were informed that they had none. This at a Seafood restaurant? We were all disgusted. I felt so sorry for the waiter, because we all knew it wasn't his fault and obviously the management/ manager (who was very young, immature and clearly full of himself) was not up to standard.

Eventually we were all in need a shot to make the food taste better, and surprise - they didn't have what we were looking for. We were all hysterical after a while, everything became a joke and I think we were just not surprised by anything after that. So we decided to get the bill and head off to find our drinks/ shots we were looking for... Lovoka. Unfortunately the place we visited next also seemed to dissappoint, so my mom saved the day with the last thing tastier than a caramal shot, Sinnful ice-cream, YUM! In the end, it was a dissappointing, yet very entertaining and enjoyable evening! We enjoyed the company, and the bad experience at Blues provided us with some entertainment and no recommendations for anyone to have a meal there anytime soon!

*~Of all the forms of courage the ability to laugh is the most theraputic~*

Laughter makes everything better... Well in my opinion it does. No matter how dull, scary, daunting or simply boring a situation may be, the best way to turn negative energy into positive energy is through laughter. Laughter is therapeutic to me, it heals the heart. No matter how depressed, stressed or scared I am, laughter has a way of taking me to a happy place. Laughter is contagious as well. One person laughing leads to another person laughing or simply smiling which in turn creates a happy cycle in life.
I found a few quotes about laughter to share with you...

Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.
Bob Newhart

Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effects.
Arnold Glasow

Laughter is the shock absorber that eases the blows of life.
Author Unknown

A day without laughter is a day wasted
Charlie Chaplin

Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.
Mark Twain

 

 

*~A tribute to fallen products~*

"'Coz nothing tastes like Fresca!" This is slogan that will never leave my mind. Years ago, Fresca exitted our market and to be honest, I still have no idea why. All I know is if I could get my hands on a can of Fresca right now, I would! I used to love it! So many products come and go and we often don't hear the cause of their discontinuance... It's kind of frustrating, because just as they bring something onto the market and you start loving it, they remove it. Why why why?! Anyway, so here are some more products I miss... Vanilla Coke (McDonald's used to sell it, that's where I was first introduced to it), Fanta Strawberry, Holy Moly's (yummy chocolate coated rings - I think it was a Cadbury's product), and then lastly, when we were kids, they used to sell these small packets of 'fizzy-like' sweeties. They were about the size of a skittle, but flat. You could buy mixed-flavoured packets (fruity) or one-flavour packets. My favourite was the cream soda flavour... I have no idea what these sweeties were called but I sure crave them a lot and wish they'd bring them back onto the market :( Maybe one day! I'll make it a goal to find the name and try bring them back onto our shelves :)

*~The statute of limitations has expired on most of our childhood trauma~*

This is an extract from the book, "Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart: Thirty True Things You Need to Know Now" by Gordon Livingston and Elizabeth Edwards.
I found the following text from "The statute of limitations has expired on most of our childhood trauma":
"The stories of our lives, far from being fixed narratives, are under constant revision. The slender threads of causality are rewoven and reinterpreted as we attempt to explain to ourselves and others how we become the people we are. As I listen to these tales of the past, I am impressed by the ways in which people connect the things they experienced as children to who they are today. So what do we owe our personal histories? Certainly we are shaped by them and must learn from them if we are to avoid the repetitious mistakes that make us feel trapped in a long0running drama of our own authorship."

So what I can interpret from this text is mainly that our pasts shape our futures When we are children, we experience life and all its new challenges. We then learn to deal with these from the way we were brought up. This develops our way of reaction to life. Our parents teach us right from wrong and from their advice and guidance, we are able to make our own choices in life and this helps shape our morals and values. We take these morals and values with us for the rest of our lives and these help us to not make the wrong choices and life decisions. No matter the situation, our past will always play a role in helping us shape our future. I am a firm believer in this!

*~Excitement brewing~*

In less than 5 days Kings of Leon (KOL) will be gracing Cape Town stadium with their awesome presence and I CAN'T WAIT!! After moving their performance date months along, October 26th is almost here... I am and have always been a huge fan of KOL and after all the piles of work we've been knee-deep in, I think we can have a well-deserved evening of awesomeness with KOL with no guilt :) To get us all ready for the show, here are some interesting facts about the band...

1. Only by the Night was the second biggest selling album in Australia in 2008 – so much so that total CD sales actually increased compared with 2007

2. The band all actually use their middle names: the members are correctly named Anthony Caleb Followill, Michael Jared Followill, Ivan Nathan Followill and Cameron Matthew Followill.

3. All of their album titles have five syllables. The band claim that the first three (Youth and Young Manhood, Aha Shake Heartbreak and Because of the Times) were coincidence, but they've superstitiously kept it going with Only by the Night.

4. That's not the only superstition they have: before they go on stage they all sing the gospel song 'Just a Little Talk with Jesus': "Now when you feel a little prayer wheel turning/And you know a little fire is burning /You will find a little talk with Jesus makes it right."

5. In the season two finale of The Mighty Boosh ('The Nightmare of Milky Joe'), the only object that Vince Noir (Noel Fielding) brings with him in case of shipwreck is a copy of Aha Shake Heartbreak. His justification is that "It's a blinding album; better than their first one. And they came up with it really quickly."
6. Caleb has claimed that 'Sex on Fire' took the longest time to write. "I kind of wrote it when I was drunk. I didn't want it to be too cliché and too corny. I knew the hook so I wrote one song about two people that hated the sight of each other but the sex was so good that they couldn't stay away. And then I wrote one that was just way too explicit. I just kind of tried to find a happy medium there somewhere."
7. Nathan and Caleb started out singing country music and playing at rodeos around Nashville before the band switched to rock'n'roll

8. They have many high-profile fans: Bob Dylan, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Kelly Jones of Stereophonics are some who have sung the band's praises, with Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse praising the band's production ethic on Aha Shake Heartbreak: "I understand there was very little overdubbing on that record. Even the vocals were live. It hurts me how psyched that makes me."

9. They're sick to death of answering questions about their father, their being home schooled or forbidden to listen to secular music when they were growing up. "After a while you feel like you're a story and you're not being recognised for what you're actually out there sacrificing everything for."

10. They've already decided what their final album will be called The Altar Call. It'll break their five-syllable-title rule; but then, if it's to be their last, they won't need the luck anymore.

To those of you going, enjoy! It's going to be a night to remember! :)

KOL - Closer, one of my favourite songs! (Performed live in Germany)

*~Only bad things happen quickly~*

It's so scary how quickly car accidents happen, without any warning... When I first started driving, my mom would constantly warn me to be aware of everything around me and how when you drive, you are driving for the other person as well... You have to constantly focus and once you lose concentration, even if it is for a split second, anything can happen. You need to think about the person driving in front, behind, next to you as well as looking far ahead to cars and people away from you. It's quite amazing that we don't see more accidents happening. Sure, accidents happen every day, but in relation to the huge population, it's not that much. In a split second of losing concentration, you may wonder off the side of the road, drive into the back of some one else, or even hit something and flip the car. Accidents are scary things and they often cause extreme injury or death. They are definitely regarded as really bad things and certainly happen very quickly.

*~What are the chances?!~*

So in order for you to fully understand the craziness of this occurrence, you really need to watch the clip below... Last weekend a trail cycle race took place at the Albert Falls Dam Nature Reserve where Evan van der Spuy was hit by a Red Hartebeest. van der Spuy is the South African Youth Cross-Country Cup Series champion and part of Team Jeep. During the race, his teammate, Travis Walker was cycling behind him with a GoPro handlebar-mounted camera and captured the entire event.

Here are some questions that they asked van der Spuy:
What was the first thought that went through your mind when the buck hit you?
"I didn't have any thoughts, I was knocked unconscious.... When I woke up I couldn't remember what had happened"
Looking at the footage, it seems like you sped up once you pointed at it - why didn't you stop?
"Often buck run in front of you when you are doing trail rides. One buck had already run past me and I could see the other on my right. I didn't realize how fast it was running at me and that we would end up colliding."
Did you see the buck coming straight at you? What was your first reaction?
"I saw it when it was about a meter or two away and started to brake, but at that point there was nothing I could do."
Has this experience changed your views on trail riding? Will you be more cautious when riding in the bush?
"There is nothing I could've done to prepare for it. So it hasn't changed my views on trail riding. I will be back on my bike in a couple of weeks."
 Looking back on it, what are the first thoughts to come to your mind?  
"I'm overwhelmed! When I got to school this morning I didn't realize there would be that much hype around it."

ONLY in Africa folks! ;)