Our woolies guy

How cool is it that one of SA's Woolworths models is the love-interest in Nicki Minaj's song "Right through me"? Ladies (and some gentlemen), introducing Willy Monfret. Willy, the sexy French-African-Caribbean model and DJ was also in AFI Fashion Week this year! I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting to him. What a sweetheart.

Wow! Can you say yum! Let's hope the rumours of him being gay are FALSE! (His FB profile says he is straight! *swoon*)

Nandos does it again

Sacred Heart

Love this image by Lala Gallardo

Slacking

I need to write about my new job....


If only I had the time.


*sigh*

Cheers, bye.

I'm pretty much over having songs as my ringtone, but if I could have one, it'd sure as hell be this one! *heart smiling*

The true story

The amazing true story of Christian the Lion. The tale behind the ad.



This story makes my heart smile.

Shouting out louder

Very proud!

For more about the other finalists, check out Mr Price Blog

Rue de Fashion

Unfortunately NOT the streets of Jobusy (we'll get there eventually), but from Paris, Milan and New York.

OH SO BEAUTIFUL

Images courtesy of StreetFSN

Or maybe you prefer

Whip My Hair

I'm trying to decide between a few things as far as this video is concerned:

- Are her parents exploiting her a la Hollywood Sweatshop because that never ends well! (Shout to Britney and Lindsay)

- Is this too adult for a kid?

- Or maybe this is the kinda music kids should be making instead of singing about love etc? Bieber, I see you!

While I make up my mind, I'll keep watching, because, if nothing else, it's catchy and a fun video.

Awesome ad

Such a great depiction of SA diversity. And it's damn funny too.

Is it November yet?

I can't wait!!!!

H is my hero!

As much as Australians piss on my chips

... These guys are hella talented!

Love is...

Some of my favourite Spring things.

(i would love to wear that ring as [one of] my engagement rings)

Images courtesy of  inthefashionloop.com

Shout-out to seesta

My friend and "Seesta" Ntokozo Kunene's collection at Elle's New Talent show was beautiful. So proud!

"We loved the punchy pop art colouration and self designed prints in Ntokozo’s range- But the cherry on the top was this awesome winged shirt! Well Done Ntokozo!"

Image courtesy of ifashion Words courtesy of inthefashionloop.com

This dance we call life

My friend has cancer.

He is twenty-four years old.

My heart is broken.

My friend was diagnosed with Testicular Cancer about 2 months ago. He is a happy-go-lucky, feisty, adorable person, with a sense of humour that tangos with mine: sarcastic comment for sarcastic comment. We haven't been friends for that long, but it feels like one of those friendships where time is insignificant. I love him as much now as I would have had I met him 10 years ago. And now he's sick.

It still doesn't ever really enter into my conscious thought that he might not kick cancer's proverbial ass, but I notice more and more how cancer slowly creeps into my consciousness. I can no longer watch shows or movies in which people have cancer. Just the mention of cancer makes me uncomfortable. I catch myself thinking about him and his cancer all the time.

I realise I wold do anything in my power to take his cancer away. To stop his twin from hurting. To stop his family and friends from the pain they're experiencing. But mostly, I would do anything to not have to lose another friend.

We seem to be at the age where, as my friend Q so elegantly put it at his birthday: "In 6 months time, some of us might not be here." He was not referring to fights that lead to break-ups, but rather, death. I don't know why - maybe old age is making me senile - but I constantly have death on my mind. Waking up some mornings wondering if my loved ones and I will make it through the day. It's such a morbid way to think, and I would give anything to have a carpe diem attitude, I just don't seem to have it in me anymore. Life has shown me otherwise.

This unhealthy pessimism aside, it still doesn't ever enter into my thought that he might not kick cancer's proverbial ass. What I know for sure is that my happy-go-lucky, feisty, adorable friend, with a sense of humour that tangos with mine, will survive this awful disease. He will be ok. And he will go on to lead the most extraordinary life, because even if it's ordinary and he goes on to marry and have a 2.5 children and a dog, it will be extraordinary because he survived cancer.

More AWESOME SA Music

I am amazed and in awe of the music coming out of South Africa right now. There is so much talent and diversity creeping out of the woodwork, it's hard not to be proudly and loudly (while blasting the music) South African. These are just a few of the songs that get my booty hopping (well, sorta).

What I wish i could say to SOOOO many people

And the fact that they're South African makes me love them even more!

One of my favourite songs at the moment

Such a talented group! Have yet to meet a song of theirs that I didn't like.

Turning 26 turned out to be amazing!

Awesome times with some seriously AWESOME friends! I'm so blessed.

"Friends are the most important ingredient in this recipe of life."

Allow me to introduce

The winner of Elle's New Talent award, Cleo Droomer. Definitely somebody to look out for. Very talented young man.

'Tis the season

Taken from Childrens Letters to God:

"Dear God. You better make all the bad things go away or you won't get elected next time."

Today marks the end of the Muslim fasting period: Ramadaan and the third day of Rosh Hashanah. Going through Facebook and Twitter, I can't help but notice all the "Eid Mubarak" and "Shana Tova" messages flying around and once again I find myself questioning my faith, or lack thereof.

Anybody who knows me knows that I am completely anti religion, and coming from a Muslim father and a Jehovah's Witness mother, people are either baffled by my stance or completely understanding. Here's my take on religion and why I choose not to subscribe.

When my parents got married, they decided if they had sons they'd be raised Muslim and if they had daughters they'd be raised Christian. They were blessed with me...oh, and my sister. When I was younger, my mom took me to Meetings (church services) at the Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall. I don't know if she took me out of habit, or because she specifically wanted to me to have some sort of religious knowledge and/or relationship with God. At first I hated going because the Meetings felt unbearably long (I had and still have the attention span of a hyperactive goldfish) and I knew there was something, ANYTHING,  I'd rather be doing, like getting a hiding. Also, the religion, like most I suppose, just took up too much of life: Tuesday book study, Thursday Bible study, Friday and Saturday field service and Sunday Meeting. Seriously? When do I play?

As I got older, my hatred increased because I was old enough to understand that I didn't agree with a lot of what was being said: You can't celebrate birthdays, but you can celebrate wedding anniversaries. No Easter. No Christmas. Women can't wear pants or skirts above the knee. If you're homosexual you are immediately disfellowshipped. Et cetera. Et cetera. So many rules and restrictions didn't make sense to me because surely all that mattered was having faith and a relationship with God and since God was so loving, patient and understanding, why did any of this matter to him or anybody else?

When I was old enough to give my mom the old "Hell no" when it came to Meetings, she stopped going as well - which made me wonder if she'd just been going for my sake the whole time. As a result, however, my relationship with my cousins changed quite drastically. I hardly saw them and to top if off, my one uncle didn't want my cousin and I interacting because I had become too "worldly". That was the cream on top of the anti-religion sundae for me because now religion was messing with my family and its dynamics and that was/is sacred.

I hardly went to Meetings from the age of 10 except every "Easter" to commemorate Jesus dying for our sins or whatever. The cherry on top happened at my Grandmother's funeral in June 2005. At her funeral service, the Elder (JWs don't have priests, only senior MEN - sexist much? - referred to as Elders who govern the 'church' and its goings-on) who was giving the Talk said - and I paraphrase - that my gran's death shouldn't sadden us the most, instead it should be the fact that those family members who do not attend Meetings and subscribe to the religion would never see her again because she was faithful and would be in Paradise and us..well, not so much. If it walks like condemnation and talks like condemnation, then it must be a duck, right? After that, I was done. I didn't care that he felt that way, I'm sure many of them share the same opinion, but the fact that he had the audacity to mention it at my gran's funeral, when we were all already heartbroken, made my blood boil. I cursed him with 10 plagues!

The thought that at first rented a space in my mind, but has now seemed to have actually bought the property, is that I actually do not have a relationship with God. I feel like a hypocrite and a liar whenever I tell people in times of tragedy, fear, anxiety, stress, that I will keep them (or whoever their loved one is) in my prayers - now I just say "thoughts". My hypocrisy is further exacerbated in situations where I feel those same emotions and I suddenly find myself "turning to God" in the form of prayers that actually sound more like desperate pleas and that generally start with "I know I only turn to you when I need you and I'm sorry for that, BUT if you could please....blah blah". I understand why God pretends he has another call coming through or why he scrunches paper in front of the receiver saying there's bad reception and the line is breaking up. Why would you want to help someone who doesn't call until she needs something? That's abuse!

But now I've realised that I don't know if I even believe in God. I believe in God because I've been taught that there is a God, he created the Earth and all those good things, but how can I believe in something that I don't constantly and consistently have faith in and doesn't occupy an unwavering place in my life and heart? To this day, my (hopefully) well-developed brain still grapples and battles with juvenile questions like if God loves us why do bad things happen?

I would love to have a relationship with God. I would love to have BLIND faith in Him/Her. I would love to know that in my darkest hours I just need to leave my problem at His/Her doorstep and all will be well. I would love to trust that life doesn't have to be as lonely as it can sometimes be because God always walks with you and when you see one set of footsteps in the sand it's because Jesus was carrying you. But I don't. And I don't know how. I don't know how to find my way to the flock. I can't reconcile this honest-to-God (irony is a beautiful thing) yearning and longing with what logically does not make sense to me.

But I guess that's the definition of faith.

Not that I needed motivation...

...'cos I already have an eyeliner fetish, but this pic is definitely affirmation that my bold liner is awesome! And those who are scared off by my eyes are too feline-in-boots-like for me anyway.

Image courtesy of TFS

In my Hall of Fame....

This song will forever bring me out of ANY funk! An 'oldie' but a bestie!

Ellen performs on So You Think You Can Dance.

I seriously heart this woman! And this just made me fall for her even more. I just think if we met, we'd be best friends forever.

Only in South Africa

Courtesy of Police Commissioner: Bheki Cele

Surprise, surprise...I was right.

Shoooweeee! I'm exhausted. I was right: weekend's are as useless as a flacid penis! I barely had a chance to rest this weekend, so it's no wonder the last thing I'm feeling is recharged and ready for this week! *self-pity-party for 1, please!*

My weekend:

Friday - work, dinner with a friend. Drinks with more friends.

Saturday - brunch with a friend. My cousin's 25th birthday lunch. Drinks and partying for 25th.

Sunday - Haartebeespoort with friends, just to get out of Jo'busy! Drinks with friends.

SIGH!

S.O.S!

CAN'T.

FUNCTION.

NEED.

ASSISTANCE.

Thank God it's.....

I have come to HATE weekends! As soon as you've begun enjoying them, it's Sunday night and in a few short hours, it's back to work! My Sunday Blues are unparalleled: hours spent filled with depression and coming up with ways to get out of work the next day! Every week is a monotonous tune: 5 days of torture for 2 days of....i don't even know what to call it. Weekends are never filled with peace and quiet because chances are, you've been too tired or busy to see family and friends during the week, or you've been postponing errands and chores til the weekend, so either way you're busy for those 2 days as well. When in the hell are we supposed to rest, recuperate and revive our weary souls? Sleep is such a beautiful thing, and yet sadly, so elusive. *sigh*

That said, I do believe Friday is the best day of the week. Yes, there is work, but it is the start of the weekend, and that takes a little of the pressure off. I guess it's also because the 2 days are still coming, and yet you can guilt-free good times.

Anyhoo... HAPPY FRIDAY/WEEKEND!

Hope it's a good one.

Ex oh ex oh