We’ve been together for close on 6 years but I still cannot talk about anything with anyone for more than 5 minutes without mentioning him at least a squillion times.

Case in point: Today we did a Christmas Party Interview (it’s an interview we do at Quirk, once the powers are be are happy with a candidate the team interviews them for the sole purpose of determining if they will ‘fit in’, i.e. are they an employee or a QuirkStar?)

Sooooo… where was I? Oh yes, anywaaay… We were doing a Christmas party interview with this dude and after it was done I realised I had managed to work my Ginger Boyfriend of awesomeness, Shaun Custers, into the conversation no less than 4 times… in an INTERVIEW!

I don’t know whether to be concerned or really frikken happy. I mean, after almost 6 years this level of happiness is almost unheard of right?

Either way, I love you babe.

Why?

Just because.

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Today the world changed for me. I met my niece for the first time.

Predictably, this story started 9 months ago. In actual fact, for me it started on 13 January – my baby sister (okay okay, 23 is not exactly a baby, but she’ll always be my baby sister) walked into my birthday party at Molly Malone’s in Fourways looking like a million dollars. She was wearing a long black dress and her naturally platinum blonde hair was curled to perfection. It was a good thing she looked so hot, because it distracted me from screeching ‘WHAAAT?!?’ when she casually leaned over the table and whispered ‘Don’t freak out… but… I’m pregnant’.

So the existence of Tatum was known. Nothing would ever be the same. It took me a while to wrap my head around it, I’m not going to lie. It took even longer to actually sink in. My baby sister was going to have a baby. Wow.

To cut a long story short – the most beautiful, perfect, cherubic angel took her first breath at 08h10 this morning. I hid it well but when I laid eyes on her sleeping face for the first time, I fell in love. No, I don’t want one of my own just yet – don’t get ahead of yourself. This one is enough for me for now.

To my phenomenally brave and talented baby sister: Munchkin, I am so unbelievably proud of you. You are going to be an awesome mom.

To Tae, I can’t wait to take you for ice-creams, to take too many photos of you and to be the one who you come to when your mom “just doesn’t get you”. I promise to be the best auntie that ever lived.

Ok, so I know I’m biased but how GORGEOUS is this little girl!?!?!

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Then last week I got an email from the incomparable Mongezi Mtati, he wanted to know if I’d like to go to a game as a guest of the International Marketing Council of South Africa. Holy Crapnuts, would I?!?! He then proceeded to make sure I owed him for life by announcing that we were not just going to any game and we did not just have any tickets, we were going to watch Africa’s last hope, The Black Stars from Ghana take on the *insert expletive here* from Uruguay at Soccer city…. and we had BOX TICKETS!!

The game was everything I could possibly have imagined and so much more. From the VIP parking right next to the stadium (we drove through no less than 8 security checkpoints and they waved us through every time like we were frikken dignitaries) to the gourmet food, wine and complimentary blankets in the suite, the stadium staff and our hosts (we’ll call them the IMC from now on shall we? that other name is a bit long) made sure we had the best experience possible.

And even though Ghana didn’t win I had the night of my life. The buzz of 84 000 vuvuzela’s is a sound that I will never ever forget. They only fell silent when that *insert even worse expletive here* Suarez kicked Uruguay into the semi-finals. They stayed silent when the Ghanian hero Asamoah Gyan fell to his knees and couldn’t get up, but they rang out once more, accompanied by the clapping, cheering and chanting of the crowd as we gave the Black Stars our appreciation, love and support the best way we know how, by drowning out the South American cheats’ celebrations.

As I stood there with tears streaming down my face I was prouder to be South African than I’ve ever been in my life.

Proud, and so very grateful to be able to say “I was there”

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1. You’ll save money

Veggie food is much cheaper than meat, I saved an average of R50 a day!

2. You’ll try new things

I don’t normally cook with lentils, mung bean sprouts, chickpeas, red kidney beans etc but when you’re a vegetarian you have to eat all that so you don’t drive yourself mad with potatoes and broccoli every night. I’m glad to report they are totally awesome and even the ginger enjoyed them (except the lentil ragu, he fed that to the cat)

3. You’ll gain weight

Well, not necessarily, but vegetarian dinners aren’t all rabbit food. If you’re not careful you’ll eat a lot more rice, pasta, cream & bread than you are used to… especially in winter where you will eat almost everything as long as it’s warm and has salt on it.

4. You’ll soon run out of things to cook

I tried to be inventive but I was pretty much at the limits of my imagination by Saturday night. I know there are seasoned veggie-monsters out there who can find something new to whip up every night but I am so used to starting my meal plan with a dead animal that I struggled at the end.

I am, however, proud of what I conjured up. Here it is, in order:

Sunday

- Aubergine lasagne with basil pesto

Monday

- Thai green curry with chickpeas and mung bean sprouts

Tuesday

- Butternut, feta and pumpkin seed penne in a white wine sauce

Wednesday

- Vegetable Briyani… and… tomato & lentil ragu with Haloumi cheese

Thursday

- Red Kidney bean tortillas with creamed corn

Friday

- Tomato noodle soup at the ginger’s mom’s house

Saturday

- Hawaiian veggie burgers & fries

So we survived the week intact and actually enjoyed it. So much so that we are going to observe Vegetarian Mondays from now on.

That said, dinner tonight was a big hunk of rare beef. And it was gooooooood!

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So I guess you want to hear the story – and we all know I love telling them!
After the Kulula debacle in February, Shaun & I were given Kulula vouchers, which expire at the end of May. We briefly discussed options for redeeming them but the time/finances were never right. So about a month ago I asked my fearless leaders if I could fly down to Cape Town for the May Quirk board meeting (one QuirkStar is allowed to attend this a month – very cool huh?). Then I started saving and scheming and negotiating – as only I can. Kulula helped a lot here – they went a long way toward making up for February.

Long story short – I had a weekend in Cape Town for me and The Ginger all sorted. But he had no idea. So the scheming continued… I started moaning that my brakes on my car were grating about 2 weeks ago and told Shaun that I was going to take my car in when I went to Cape Town… would he fetch me from the airport?

I proceeded to be as irritating as possible, from whining about having to go to Cape Town, to rubbing it in that I was going – I needed him to resent the fact that he wasn’t coming with. He was infuriatingly gracious as usual but I think it worked.

On Tuesday night I packed some of his clothes in a bag (the ones I knew he wouldn’t miss) and then ‘dropped my car off at Toyota to get the brakes done’ -my car was at Mary’s house. I came to Cape Town for the board meeting (which was excellent by the way – so worth it) and spent the rest of the week working from our beautiful Cape Town office. Ask the queen of overshare; @Exmi how gorgeous it is – she got a skype tour.

On Friday evening he arrived to fetch me from the airport; I told him to park his car, go inside and get his boarding pass, to which he replied: “ I don’t understand”. When he eventually figured out what was going on, he got on the plane and our weekend began.

Thanks to Neal & Graham for hosting us at The Toad in Noordhoek for the Rugby (what a gorgeous pub!) – and to Rob for a yummy breakfast and a great wine farm recommendation. We spent this weekend being proper tourists, from scenic drives through Chapmans Peak, to wine tasting in Franschhoek & Stellenbosch and walks on the Sea Point promenade.

What can I say – I am the world’s best girlfriend….

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Ag, you know – same old, same old. Working too hard, getting sick, not following my diet, getting slammed and vomiting at my sister’s house….. what!?!? Am I too old for that? … Seriously?

That’s been the one thing on my mind this month – I’m old. I know that sounds totally ridiculous, I’m only 26 right? I know, but something is making me feel like a dried up old career clone. I don’t know why and I dont want to dwell on it.

So. What I have I really been doing?

I went to the opening of a gorgeous new Deli in Pineslopes ‘Deli Su Casa‘ – they open at 06h30AM and have free Wi-fi (yes, you read right – FREE). And their decor looks like the way I’d decorate my home. What’s not to love?

I went away to our friends’ game farm for Easter Weekend and to Tanya & Peter’s River house last weekend – it was rainy and cold both weekends. Sigh. Both weekends were awesome in spite of the weather.

Seriously though – WTF is up with all this rain in Jozi? It’s like the bloody Capetonians gave us their shitty winter weather and took our beautiful Autumns. It’s my favourite season damnit!

We moved offices. Finally. Our new offices are uber super duper awesome – they’re in Bryanston on Ballyclare drive. Stop by if you’re in the area – we have loaaaads of space (hurry – we’re hiring fast)

I’m going to INDABA this weekend in Durban. Remember last year’s INDABA? Well this year I’m the project manager and we’re hopefully gonna jump off the Moses Mabhida stadium! (Bungi Jump, not suicidal jump)

I was in an armed robbery. I didn’t get hurt (I was a victim, not a robber), but I’ll never eat marshmallow Easter eggs again after seeing them splattered with blood.

So, ja – that’s as much as I have patience to type right now.

Hopefully I blog again sooner.

Hopefully.

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I was never one of them. I wasn’t one of the ones at the front either, mind you. I was safely in the middle, half envying and half scorning them…

The girls at the back of the bus.

If you’ve ever been to a 27Dinner you’ll recognise them. The ones who talk throughout the presentations, even though they’re listening. The ones who take too many smoke breaks and walk around looking guilty all night. I never thought I’d say this but I’m one of them, and loving it.

We are the Powerpuff girls, the blonde, the brunette and the redhead. The lawyer/writer supermom, the bubbly social media queen and the loud, stressed workaholic. We’re polar opposites, but exactly the same. We’re in the prime of our lives. You know, that bit you talk about nostalgically when you’re in your late 30’s with teenage kids? When your career is starting to take off, your home/love life is settled but not boring yet, and you don’t have a single (noticeable) wrinkle yet.

We met barely a year ago and have been an unstoppable force ever since. We are all intelligent and driven, but still revel in silliness when it suits us. After all, you don’t stop having fun because you grow old, you grow old because you stop having fun.

So to my crazy counterparts, @SheBeeGee and @ExMi- may we always be as happy as we are now, may we look back on these days and remember them as the mostest awesomest ever.

Love you bitches, thank you for making me one of them…

The girls at the back of the bus.

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I don’t know who you think you are but We want you to realise a few things: this country isn’t exclusively yours, there are over 48 million other people who proudly call this place home. And there are a few things called human rights which allow us to express our voice just as much as they allow you to express yours. I know I don’t have a fancy house in Sandton or a battalion of white Range Rovers, but I have this blog. And you can’t shut me, or my friends up.

Here is our opinion:

“Last week, shocking revelations concerning the activities of the ANC Youth League spokesperson Nyiko Floyd Shivambu came to the fore. According to a letter published in various news outlets, a complaint was laid by 19 political journalists with the Secretary General of the ANC, against Shivambu. This complaint letter detailed attempts by Shivambu to leak a dossier to certain journalists, purporting to expose the money laundering practices of Dumisani Lubisi, a journalist at the City Press. The letter also detailed the intimidation that followed when these journalists refused to publish these revelations.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the reprisals against journalists by Shivambu. His actions constitute a blatant attack on media freedom and a grave infringement on Constitutional rights. It is a disturbing step towards dictatorial rule in South Africa.

We call on the ANC and the ANC Youth League to distance themselves from the actions of Shivambu. The media have, time and again, been a vital democratic safeguard by exposing the actions of individuals who have abused their positions of power for personal and political gain.

The press have played a vital role in the liberation struggle, operating under difficult and often dangerous conditions to document some of the most crucial moments in the struggle against apartheid. It is therefore distressing to note that certain people within the ruling party are willing to maliciously target journalists by invading their privacy and threatening their colleagues in a bid to silence them in their legitimate work.

We also note the breathtaking hubris displayed by Shivambu and the ANC Youth League President Julius Malema in their response to the letter of complaint. Shivambu and Malema clearly have no respect for the media and the rights afforded to the media by the Constitution of South Africa. Such a response serves only to reinforce the position that the motive for leaking the so-called dossier was not a legitimate concern, but a insolent effort to intimidate and bully a journalist who had exposed embarrassing information about the Youth League President.

We urge the ANC as a whole to reaffirm its commitment to media freedom and other Constitutional rights we enjoy as a country.”

We will not be silenced. This is our country too.

So, who are “we”?

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Dear Kulula,

I travel frequently, very frequently, and always with you. I have never had a problem with your service in the past. In fact, it has been exemplary. But then, I’ve always travelled from Lanseria. This time I could not fly from my favourite airport as we were coming to Knysna from George for a friend’s wedding so I had to fly out of OR Tambo. But this is not the reason you suck…

Our flight was scheduled to depart at 14h30 on Thursday 24 Feb. We got to the airport in a timely manner and checked in 1 hour before the flight. When checking us in, the lady behind the counter kept frowning, so much so I asked her what was wrong. She refused to tell us, just asked us to follow her – which we did. Despite repeated requests for her to explain to us what was going on, she ignored us. She lead us to a counter where 4 other Comair staff were standing. We asked them what was going on. Nothing. They just demanded our boarding passes and refused to explain why. By this time, 45 other poor sods had been led to the same counter and this is when we began to suspect the worst.

One member of your staff explained that George Airport was only accepting aircraft up to a certain weight, while another tore our boarding passes in half. The explanation went something like “We can’t land the bigger planes at George Airport and we’ve filled the small plane we have so you will all have to fly tomorrow”. Now, I had heard about all the problems with George Airport but had also heard that the CAA had changed the ruling on Tuesday and the airport was now able to accept planes as long as they have reverse thrust and anti-skid braking, which the Boeing 737’s that Kulula flies have. But nevertheless, that is not the reason you suck…

After trying to calm almost 50 very angry commuters down, your staff told us they had known about this problem since 12pm, but had neglected to call any of us to inform us we didn’t have to trek to ORT, only to be sent home again. Your staff offered us accommodation in a hotel to compensate, which about 20 of us accepted. We then waited over 30 minutes in a queue in the airport terminal just to be told what hotel we were going to. But that is not the reason you suck…

We were dragged across the whole (really big) airport to a public transport terminal to wait for busses to the hotel, there were pasengers over 70 who were made to walk with their luggage to the bus area without any offer of help from your staff. We got to the bus area and a shuttle arrived shortly after, which could only take half of us. So the other half waited for the next shuttle. And we waited. And waited. And waited. After 20 minutes, one of the other members of our very pissed off pity party went to ask your staff member to call the hotel and ask where the shuttle was. He didn’t reply, but put his cellphone to his ear and walked away. When he was done we asked “Well, where is the bus?….” He just shrugged and walked away from us. We stood around waiting for another 20 minutes until I thought to call the hotel myself. It turns out the bus had been standing next to us the whole time and your staff member failed to notice it!! (we, of course, had no idea what it looked like as it is not marked with the hotel’s name). I still do not know who your incompetant moronic staff member was calling but it certainly wasn’t the hotel as I found out about the bus from them in less than 5 minutes. We finally got on the bus and arrived at the hotel, but our rooms were not ready, we had to wait in the bar for a further 30 minutes (not the hotel’s fault, Kulula had from 12pm to alert them to our presence and didn’t – it was now 4pm). But this is not why you suck…

We finally left this morning at 08h30 (even though the plane was supposed to take off at 08h10), the flight to George was uneventful (thank goodness). We arrived in George and went to wait for our bags at the conveyer belt…. Yup, you guessed it Kulula, the bags never came. After all that, you lost our bags too. We reported the missing bags to one of your staff members, who was totaly unapologetic and indifferent. She told us she would investigate where the bags were and call us.

Now, dear reader, I’m sure you can imagine how incredibly angry, tired, frustrated and just plain pissed off we were at this point. How emotionally drained we felt. Well, I can tell you, Kulula doesn’t care.

All the way through this seemingly unending nightmare, Kulula did nothing but palm us off with an R800 flight voucher. It sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? Well, between the accommodation, the car hire and the day’s work missed we were all needlessly paying for, it doesn’t even cover half. And Kulula, after what you did to us, after the apathy, the rudeness, the incompetence, the moronic, stupid, uncaring behaviour, from the woman at the check in counter who refused to give us info before palming us off to other incompetants, to the stupid jokes I had to listen to while I was on hold for 24 minutes while trying to reach your customer care (what a joke) line – you think that I really want to redeem that stupid R800 voucher?!? You think that I want to get my bags lost again and have to worry about attending my friend’s wedding in jeans and a t-shirt again?!? You are seriously mistaken. Kulula…. that is why you suck.

P.S. Through this hellish ordeal, a few shining lights kept us from physically assualting someone: Protea Hotel OR Tambo you are amazing. Your decor is delightfully quirky, your facilities tip-top and your service impeccable. And Avis Car rental in George airport (especially Nadine) for upgrading our car hire to make us feel better after hearing our story, you provoked a rare smile in an otherwise bleak day. Thank you.

As for Kulula – sorry, I have to say it again in case you haven’t gotten it yet…. YOU. SUCK.

P.P.S It is now 18h45 and we still do not have our bags. We landed at 10h10…..

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