A better weekend

Let me start this post off with a line I'm sure has been uttered around the world since time immemorial on Monday mornings:

I don't feel like being at work today.

I'd rather be continuing with my lovely weekend, which, after a surprisingly good business meeting with a new client, kicked off with dinner with fabulous friends on Friday at our place. We've decided to do a regular super club with these two couples, T&R and B&M, and it was our first turn to host. After the crudites, I served my red Thai chicken curry with glass noodles and roasted pumpkin from the garden. Dessert was my white chocolate tart topped with blueberries and strawberries. Forgot to take a pic, but it was pretty.

We enjoyed a bottle of red wine, easy conversation and then coffee and chocolates before they left, still at a fairly reasonable hour as T was working the next day. What I love about these friends is that we can see each other once a month and just pick up where we left off. We all have vastly different interests (T&R are serious touch rugby players while B&M are chess champions), but we get along so well.

On Saturday, TSC and I did our volunteer training at Kitty Haven. I love being surrounded by the affectionate cats and dogs. One cat, Forrest Gump, is blind in one eye and has a neurological disorder that makes him walk very strangely so that he looks spastic. But he is the sweetest cat and threw himself on my lap for a cuddle and a bellyrub while we listened to the volunteer coordinator explaining how things work. He was most put out when I had to get up for the sanctuary walk-through.

We followed the training with brunch at Grand Central Cafe again. And it was just as brilliant as last time. So often I find that I enjoy my experience at a restuarant and then the next time I'm there it disappoints me. Not so here. It was great. And their homemade lemonade is divine.

We went through to Pretoria to see my folks. My mom seems to be ok. We all, including my brother (who was actually quite charming for a change - he normally reserves that side of him for his mates), went out for supper at the cutest restaurant in Hazelwood, Boston Deli Kitchen.

It's so quirky, with a shop selling random jewellery and clothes, as well as relishes, jams and sweet treats, all inside the restaurant. Menus are Afrikaans literature books that have the actual menu pages glued onto certain pages. There's a pay-by-weight carvery too. The food was great. I had duck confit and my brother had a lamb mint pie. But the best bit was the desserts! Brownies, deep-fried nougat and Cointreau creme brulee, among others. Yum! It was a good evening of laughing and chatting.

On Sunday, while TSC studied, I popped into HobbyX. I'm not a fan of expos because there are just too many people pushing through the stands. But it's alsways worth going to HobbyX to stock up on craft equipment. I got some beautiful embossed, glittered, flocked and handmade papers from Paper World (the main reason I go to HobbyX), as well as loads of scrapbooking bits and bobs that I use to make cards. I behaved myself and stayed away from the mosaic stands (where I could easily spend my entire salary), but also bought more chocolate moulds (don't know what happened to all of mine) so that I can make my own Easter eggs this year.

Then it was back home to prep for today's round of interviews for a magazine commission I'm busy with, and to quickly write the newsletter for our complex.

It was a good weekend in all. I even got to swim, ever so briefly. This week looks like it may be ever so slightly less manic than last week, which would be brilliant.

PS: Congratulations to Meriel on her marriage. She is a special, special lady and I wish her much happiness.

PPS: What do you think about the change in colour / style here?

Monday randomness

I sometimes get a sneaking suspicion that Blogger's word verification displays are created by taking a dictionary of truly rude phases and scrambling them ever so slightly so they're still vaguely recognisable, but not so offensive. Seriously... the ones I get are always like two letters away from being plain disgraceful.

Randomness aside (not really), thanks for all the comments on the previous post about lurking. I found them fascinating. Just to clear things up: I do not dislike lurkers (how can I dislike you when I don't know who you are?) - it's just really awesome when people de-lurk because I discover someone new who cares enough to read this bizarre blog.

I think I started on this train of thought because I discovered the other day that my dad has been reading my posts occasionally (and lurking) over the past few weeks. This immediately made me want to check my spelling and grammar on every update. He's really interested by the whole concept of blogging and keeps asking me how things work. He asked about Twitter too. I explained as best as I could (not being a Tweeter myself). I think I shall have to take him into the back-end of Blogger to show him how things are done, because for someone who works with words all day long, I'm not very good at explaining things. But it's nice to be able to teach my dad something for a chnage, seeing I regard him as my walking encyclopaedia.

I realised again while my folks have been in Russia how much I adore them. It hasn't always been like that. We weren't particularly close when I was younger and used to have quite a stormy relationship. I've always been fiercely independent and I think I felt the need to prove that I could do things without them. But things started to change when they moved away and I went into boarding school for grade 11 and grade 12 (my choice). I began, albeit very slowly, to appreciate them more and be grateful for all they do for me, which is a helluva lot.

Since we've been living in Jozi, only half an hour's drive from them, I've come to relish spending more time with them and being closer as a family. I've really, really missed them while they've been away. And I love that we're finally in a great place in our relationship now that I'm "all grown up" (haha! whatever) and that we can do Sunday lunch together without tempers flaring or someone sulking (that was usually me as a teenager).

The fact that I started to understand what family is all about when I started boarding school (which I loved) has made me think that if I ever do spawn children, I would probably consider sending them to boarding school for the last few years of high school. Not from a young age (TSC was a boarder from age six, which I think is way too young), but just for grades 10 through to 12. Maybe.

I've had many discussions about this with friends who disagree with me (most of whom didn't go to boarding school). Now I don't believe that a parent should ever abdicate responsibility to a school for teaching children discipline, obedience and all that other good stuff, but I do think boarding school helped me to learn a few important lessons: that I wasn't the centre of the universe, that sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do (like washing your own sheets and shining your school shoes) and also to appreciate my family and the time I have with them. I also had to learn how to live with people I didn't particularly get on with and I made some incredible friends.

I have friends who feel the same way and other mates who went to boarding school and hated it. I think a lot depends on personality and all that jazz. But boarding schools are really common in South Africa and while any hypothetical kids I may one day birth are looking very unlikely at present, should they one day exist, as far as I can imagine now, boarding will definitely be an option.

Or maybe I'll read back on this in 20-odd years time and laugh at myself. Who knows ;-)

K, enough brain farting for a Monday morning. Need some muesli. Bye.

Rainy days and Mondays... were fabulous for a change!

Yesterday was great. It didn't start that way, but it was. I got home from the morning-job at about 14.30, spent quite a long while on the phone with various Telkom folk trying to figure out why my internet is still not working (my router is probably the problem, seeing it's a piece of crap that always gives problems). The lights on my router are all on, the configuration hasn't changed, but after six months of being fine, something has gone wrong somewhere and Telkom says it's not them.

With the internet still down, I couldn't get any of my freelance work done. Frustration! But, seeing TSC was home from varsity, we spent the rainy-day late afternoon hours cuddling in bed. Bliss! We only left the house briefly to get pizza and a DVD. The evening was spent in candlelight, with strawberries and a silly flick. It was awesome to catch up and have "us" time.

Today, however, I need to do yesterday's work and today's work, drive through to Centurion to borrow a Telkom router from someone (not shelling out to buy one until I'm sure the problem is actually my router), prepare everything for tomorrow's life group meeting (have asked someone else to lead, still at our house, because we're going to the awesome Taste of Joburg, which I was convinced was on Thursday) and have now been asked to help out at our new members' eve for church tonight. Grr! So not in the mood to be nice to people. Or to go out in the cold (having a lovely rainy spell in Jozi that should be spent in bed, IMO).

I wish every day could be like yesterday. Or that I could photograph the whole day in some interactive format to relish the moments over again. If that makes any sense. It would be a great invention.

Right... off to heat up some left over pizza. That's something to smile about ;-)

Good times

I can't believe it's Monday again. It's a horrible way to spend a seventh of one's life ;-)

I'm actually in a fairly good mood today, despite it being Monday, probably because I feel like I eeked out every bit of weekend goodness.

Friday afternoon, I got home from work and picked the peas that were weighing down the plants in the veggie patch. I had enough to give five bags away. Pretty impressive. I also picked some spinach, cherry tomatoes and cabbage for my folks. I can't send them on holiday to Zanzibar like they did for us, but I can keep their fridge well stocked with green things!

TSC arrived home shortly afterwards and we got ready for supper at Die Boomhuisie (translated as the little treehouse) in Krugersdorp with Phillygirl, Varen, Louisa, Yvette and her hubby and little baby Sienna. I wish their website was working so I could show you some pics and the menu!

We had such a good time. What a hilarious, lovely bunch of people and what an awesome place - the decor, food and service were all great. I highly recommend the lemon condensed milk cake. Mmmm...

On Saturday we were up early to get through to Pretoria. I dropped TSC off at my folks place, dropped our year-end financial documents at our accountant and then met one of my best friends, Toni, at the Irene Village Market.

When we got home, I got busy in the garden while TSC worked on varsity stuff, planting some wild irises I got from my mom and digging some straw, compost and bone meal into the one patch where the soil is like clay. Good workout, I must say.

We headed to our great friends Brett and Kim for Brett's birthday braai. Such legends. We couldn't stay long because TSC had so much work, but it was good to catch up a bit and meet some new people.

On Sun, TSC was up early again and on the PC. I slept in for a bit and then we went to Lifestyle Garden Centre for the first time and had brunch at Primi Life. What a different experience to the pathetic service at Primi Extreme! The coffee was brilliant, the service and food were really good and we enjoyed sitting in a patch of sunlight enjoying the Sunday spring weather.

We then headed to the nursery where I stocked up on some new plants - vygies, gazanias, osteospurmums, purple alyssum and some more pansies. Big thanks to Phillygirl for my birthday voucher for Lifestyle Garden Centre, which introduced me to one of my new favourite places in Joburg!

We got home just in time for the F1 race at Monza, which was interesting from start to finish, despite the fact that my team (McLaren) didn't do very well. Kovalainen disappointed once again, finishing sixth. He just doesn't have the winning spirit. And Hamilton may have too much of it - he pushed so hard that he dropped it on the last lap and crashed out of the race, losing the six points he would have won from third place.

Sutil of the Force India team moved up into fourth place. I was chuffed for him. For those of you (most of you) who don't watch, Force India has always been one of the least likely teams to be anywhere near the front, so the fact that they had a driver on the podium in the last race (who is now driving for Ferrari) and in the top half of the points-paying positions this week (drivers up to eighth place scores points) is like... The Pumas beating the Blue Bulls, Sharks and Lions (in other words, a Disney-movie type of "underdog wins against all odds" situation).

After the Grand Prix, I planted all my new flowers, trimmed, dug and generally tidied up the garden (which took a couple of hours and gave me blisters on my hands to match those on my feet). Tired but happy, I cleaned up and TSC and I headed off to church to end the weekend.

How was your weekend?

Garden stuff (in which I wax lyrical about peas and whine about my sore back)

Monday.

What did you feel when you saw that word?

Hope you're all having a good one so far. Mine hasn't been too bad. Irritating clients who don't communicate have been my worst problem so far, which is pretty good going for 11am, I reckon.

My back is killing me. I spent the whole of Saturday digging in the garden and serving TSC's ungrateful bunch of varsity people while they built their concrete boat. Which is actually more of a paddle ski, to be honest. It's quite impressive - they've made a metal frame, stuffed it with polystyrene and coated it with concrete-soaked cloth and some more concrete. They just have to paint it with a few coats of waterproofing paint and it should be ready to race.

I got one no-dig veggie bed done. What a mission! The veggies better be worth it in the end. first you make a frame, which I made with two layers of stacked concrete bricks. Then you put down a layer of newspaper, 5mm thick. Then you put down a layer of hay or lucerne (I had to get all this stuff from a horse-feed place), 10cm thick. Then you put down some organic matter (kitchen scraps, wilted weeds etc). Then you put down a layer of loose straw, 10cm thick, and some more organic matter. Then you water it well. Lastly, you top it with a 20 - 30cm layer of compost and water it again. Now I have to leave it to settle for two weeks before I can plant.

I have said before that patience is not my strong point. I want to plant NOW.

The point of a no-dig bed is that in theory, you never have to dig it (was that maybe a little obvious?). When you harvest your veggies, you just top up the bed with another 10cm compost and plant your next crop (obviously making sure you follow rotation guidelines so you keep your bed healthy).

The thing is... I ran out of bricks after this one bed. So now I need to get more to do the next oh, I dunno, five or six beds. Yes, five or six more of these back-breaking expensive bloody beds.

Like I said, the veggies better be worth it.

My current veggies are making me happy though. My peas are divine. There are few things in this world as yummy as a handful of freshly shelled sweet baby peas out the garden. Mmmm. In fact, these sparked my latest salad creation: a bed of sweet, tangy lettuce (not the boring variety) with sliced avocado and strawberries, finely chopped green pepper and fresh baby peas, dried cranberries and a handful of mixed seeds, all tossed in Pomegranite-infused white balsamic vinegar. Yum!

Hmmm... hungry now. Off to make some lunch. One last thing to say...

CONGRATULATIONS to ANGEL and GLUG on their ENGAGEMENT!

A post of lists

Things I did on the weekend:

• Worked till midnight on Friday to finish my big freelance project.
• Missed TSC.
• Worked till 14h00 on Saturday to finish said project.
• Had breakfast with the parentals, which was great.
• Had coffee with a friend and discussed the possibility of hosting art classes in my garage.
• Dyed the big white cotton rug my mom gave me. It's now dark brown and will match the lounge and hopefulyl be kitty pawprint proof. It was damn difficult to do on my own though - so heavy when it's wet! I'm amazed that I too am not dark brown to match the lounge.
• Finished painting and decorating the coat rack we've made for our room.
• Painted two canvases lilac to match the guest room. Added thickly painted branches and stuck on some velvety cherry blossom flowers to make a 3D work of art.
• Missed TSC some more.
• Bought my dad's birthday present.
• Bought a pair of skinny jeans (finally).
• Bought some new bras so I could chuck out the ancient falling-apart ones.
• Blew my budget (see above).
• Went to church.
• Dreamt of hosting art classes in my garage.

Things I did on Monday:

• Spent a frustrated half-day at work with no internet access.
• Went home and worked to finish my big freelaance project.
• Wrote a press release about programmable logic controllers. Coz I know so much about that stufff. Or not.
• Tried not to freeze in the icy cold house.
• Went for a piping hot supper and some good red wine with departed colleagues Icing and DK, which was awesome.
• REALLY missed TSC.

Things on the list for today:

• Say goodbye to latest departing colleague, JK.
• Try not to freeze in the office (we have no heaters).
• Have my hair cut (yay!).
• Welcome TSC back.
• Snuggle in a warm bed.
• Discuss the possibility of hosting art classes in our garage.

Not enough hours in the day

Because we do our office status meetings on a Monday morning (which takes up to two hours sometimes), I never seem to have enough time to do everything I need to do on the first day of the week. The fact that I write every single press release / newsletter / advert / piece of writing that this agency sends out means that my workload increases with every new client we sign. Currently, I am under the whip and battling to do all the work within my half-day. I find this very stressful. Discussions are underway about finding me a writing assistant. Let's hope that happens. If you know of a suitable candidate (i.e. good English and communication skills, in this for the love of writing rather than the love of money, able to work to insane deadlines and keen to join our hyper-emotional all-female company), please let me know.

Until then, I leave you with a picture of my vegetables that I picked out of my garden on Saturday. Why? Because (as Jackson's Mom will understand) I am incredibly proud of these fruits of my labour, more so than of the million-odd press releases I will write this week. Rightly so, I believe. The veggies definitely taste better.

No post today, my mojo's gone away...

You know when you have a Monday that is intent on proving to you that it is indeed Monday? today is one of those. Back tomorrow.

PS: Brownie points for those of you who get the song I'm referencing in my title today. It's ancient. And about dairy.

Weekend stuff

Don't go watch Body of Lies. Unless you like Middle Eastern political drama / thrillers that think they're smarter than they actually are. But that's just my opinion. I dislike unnecessary scenes of overly graphic violence. And I think this movie was really overrated. DiCaprio is good. Crowe is ok. The real star is Mark Strong, as far as I'm concerned. But enough about that...


On Saturday TSC and I went for a long walk at Northern Farm, which is a huge horse and cattle farm about 20 minutes drive from our place. Aside from the fact that there's a steep entrance fee (for a once-off entry. Multi-passes are cheaper), it's a fantastic place where people go to mountain bike, horse ride and bird watch. It feels like it's a million miles away from the city and it was so good to be outside.


The leaves were a million different shades of green and the Christmas beetles were buzzing a harmony that made it feel like the air particles around us were vibrating with the sound. There was that good, rich earthy smell that you get after the rain (it's been a cool, wet weekend) and a gurgling clear stream. We tramped about for an hour and only saw a lone cyclist ride past us - no-one else. It was soul-refreshing.


Just thinking about it makes the flashing, about-to-die, going-to-give-me-epileptic-fits flourescent lightbulb above my desk even more infuriating.


Have a fantabulous, flickering-flourescent-lighbulb-free week.

PS: I registered to vote. How about the rest of you South Africans?

"Why is it that weekends go by so fast?"

I find myself asking this question every Monday morning as I stumble out of bed and trip over one of my cats (they lie there on purpose, I tell you).

This weekend was good. My folks are back from their holiday and it sounds like they had a great time. We had dinner with them on Friday evening and they showed us all their photos. Jealousy! They brought us a beautiful hand-crafted blue glass bowl that I can't wait to display in the new house, and TSC got a gorgeous belt, some chocolate and a "funny" T-shirt very similar to this:

Unfortunately, none of the shirts they bought me really fit, but my mom found the cutest little brooch. Will have to take a pic and post it.

And my dad, who is the world's greatest car fanatic, gave the thumbs up on the repairs to my Ella*. Which is great, because he didn't actually know that aside from the bumper that got scraped in the pothole, I also had the left side of the car fixed where I scraped it on a pillar in the parkade. I figured that if he didn't notice, I was safe.

Little did I know that my mother had told him about the second incident! All that skulking around for nothing! What a waste of my talents in the sneakiness department.

Truth be told, I'm actually glad he knows. But he doesn't know that I know that he knows. Did you follow that?

Well, I just saw that I have an award from Kitty Cat (yay! Two awards in two weeks), so my Monday is ok thus far. Hope you all have a fabulous week!

Two Mondays

Thanks to yesterday's public holiday, today feels like a Monday. So two Mondays in one week! Eep. But tomorrow's Friday, so it's all good.

And I just realised that we're nearly into October, which means I need to start on Christmas presents now in order not to be broke in December. I tell myself that I'm going to do this every year, and I don't. But this year will be different.

Hmmm... de ja vu.

But seriously... I want to go on a kick-ass holiday at the end of the year, so I will need to have some cash then. Which means I will need to either:

a) Win the lotto (unlikely, seeing I don't play)
b) Get in some more freelance jobs ASAP
c) Convince people to order their corporate gifts through me or let my company do their PR (coz I'd get commission)
d) Cut down on my spending (also unlikely given the current inflation rate. Ok, and my tendancy to buy random gifts for those I love)
e) Open a shebeen on my veranda (anything's possible in uor dodgey complex)
f) Take up a new line of work that pays better (politics, maybe? Or law. I'm argumentative enough to be a lawyer.)

This cash injection is absolutely necessary to my well-being. See, I need to unwind as fully as possible during the first week of holiday because my in-laws are taking TSC and I to a lovely resort just after Christmas for a week, which will be... stressful to put it politely.

There are not many people I would choose to go on holiday with, I prefer to just get away from everything and everyone. And my in-laws, although they are very kind-hearted people who don't mean to make things difficult, are experts at stressing me out. Firstly, we don't speak the same language. Secondly, they live in a different world to me. Theirs is populated with their family, their sheep, farm life and red wine that's been stored overnight in the fridge. Mine is inhabited by lunatics, irrational clients, my mental cats and "room-temperature" red wine. So we battle to relate to each other.

Thirdly, their idea of a holiday is to go shopping. This makes sense, if you think that they live in a small town where there aren't many stores. But my idea of a holiday is to escape to a quiet cabin in the mountains or on a beach and retreat from the madding crowds. They like to spend every single minute surrounded by people. I like to hide from the world with just TSC by my side.

So I worry that the week will be claustrophobic for me. I can handle that for a few days, and I just want TSC to enjoy his time with his folks as much as possible seeing he doesn't see them often. But I do plan on relaxing as much as is humanly possible before then. And seeing it's TSC and my second wedding anniversary on 16 Dec, I'm thinking spa treatments, romantic dinners and adventures together are in order.

So... any advice on making money in a hurry (legally, please)?

Of Mondays and movies

Why does everything go wrong on a Monday? Is it so that you'll have the rest of the week to sort it out, or is it to drive home the point that the weekend is very definitely over? Just a question. Today hasn't been especially bad. Aside from the printer pulling its usual attention-seeking nonsense and the fact that ALL my colleagues are out of the office at an exhibition today, it's going fairly smoothly.

Our friendly kind-of-temporary receptionist, CK, is in for the day, so at least I have company in taking everyone else's calls and managing their clients. And it's unusually quiet, so I may actually get some of the things on my list done for a change.

The weekend was great. TSC's childhood family friend, Rob, spent it with us. He's really easy going and didn't seem to mind the fact that we didn't really give him proper guest status (which would've meant showing him the sights of Jozi [are there any?!?]; waiting on him hand and foot; and serving him 3-course gourmet meals). We treated him more like a member of the family, which means that he got to, go grocery shopping, sample my pasta a la Tamara, watch old DVDs with us and even help with the clearing up after meals.

We enjoyed having him, and I think he enjoyed his weekend. Yesterday was the long-awaited joint birthday picnic, which was AWESOME (in my opinion)! And yes, Slyde, after this, my b-day truly is over for the year, k?

It was a little windy, but we had a good turnout of over 30 people and there was more than enough food (I now have a fridge stocked with enough potato salad and various juices to last the next month). Everyone seemed to get along, and my only worry was that I didn't get to spend enough time with anyone because I was trying to talk to everyone.

Of the bloggers, Angel, Glugster, Ruby and Arkwife were in attendance, along with Angel's son, Damien (aka The Knucklehead). What an awesome bunch! I've only met Angel before, and I loved the chnace to finally meet her man in real life. He is just as sharp as he is on his blog. Although, Glug, if you're reading this, I still find you intimidating in all your technical wisdom ;-)

We made everyone play a loud and childish (but fun, I hope) game called 'Hah', which requires the use of both hands. Angel somehow managed to play with one hand while taking pics with the other. She also made THE MOST AMAZING CUPCAKES in the world! they were so beautiful you didn't want to eat them, but YUM, I'm glad I did! With purple frosting (my favourite colour), which was strawberry flavoured, and little sparkles and decorations, they were gorgeous works of art. And the red velvet recipe meant they tasted like a little slice of heaven. Mmmmm... making myself hungry now. Angel, I still have your cake tray! I must get it back to you sometime soon.

Ruby and Arkwife are also stunning ladies that I hope to see more of, and, despite the fact that they'd never met us before, they still managed to come up with a funky present - these spoons made entirely of chocolate that you stir into hot milk to make your own Belgian hot chocolate. How cool is that?

My only regret is that by the time everyone had left and we'd packed up, we were covered in sticky juice, various dips and other food remnants, so we decided to go home instead of visiting EXMI and went home to shower instead. Then we watched Untraceable, starring Diane Lane and Colin Hanks, which traumatised me with its twistedness.

Ugh... I get shivers down my spine just thinking about it. It's about an Internet serial killer who devises incredibly sick ways of killing his victims with help from his readers - the faster they post, the quicker they die. If you, like me, can't handle depictions of cruelty to animals or graphic scenes of torture, STAY AWAY from this one.

It would've been a bad end to a good weekend, but we saved it by rewatching one of my all-time favourite movies - Snatch, directed by Guy Ritchie. So funny, even the millionth time around.

Ok, this has been a long post. Ending it now. Happy 1st day of spring to those of you in the Southern Hemisphere!

Miserable Monday

Brrrr! It is so cold here right now. My fingers are turning blue, so forgive me if there are a lot of typos today, but I can't feel the keys properly.



Mondays usually suck, but freezing cold Mondays suck even more. At least most of the weekend was good, especially yesterday, which was the first bloggirls meeting. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for the whole event :( But it was awesome to meet the lovely ladies I read every day and find a new restaurant nearby that totally rocks. Here's a rundown of who was there and what I thought. Hehehe...



phillygirl: The genius behind bloggirls and the organiser of the event, she was the only one in the restaurant when I arrived and nervously asked, 'Are you a bloggirl?' Friendly, really easy to talk to and seems really well connected in the blogging world, she's also really jacked up with the technical side of stuff, which makes me jealous. Read her blog. It has adorable pics of her bunnies on it as well as good reading.



The Jackson files: This mom blogs about her gorgeous little boy, Jackson. I'd read her blog a couple of times, but not being a parent wasn't really a regular. Having met the little tike, though, I think I'm going to be stopping by there more regularly - he is just too sweet. So is The Mom, with a charming English accent and loads of patience.



MzMozi: I hadn't read this lady guy's blog before, but I was missing out! She is so funny. Apparently she's been sparse lately, but I'd recommend checking out her blog anyway. She seems to know lots about everything, like who Blonde Blogshell really is.



Sleepyjane: This fabulous person is Afrikaans, but writes such good posts in English that I would never have guessed. The closest to my age (I think), poor Sleepyjane got lost coming to the event. I'm very glad she made it there though - such a sweetie. Oddly enough, most of her readers seem to be from the USA. Bizarre.



Sweets: I read Sweets' blog pretty much everyday. She's funny, crazy, quick and... well, sweet. And she is so beautiful in real life. Her web pics do not do her justice. She and Angel (see next) met in November last year, so they swanned in there together and didn't have to deal with the jitters the rest of us had.



Angel: I also read Angel regularly, for the same reasons I read Sweets. And she didn't disappoint, arriving with camera in hand, in true Angel style. I had to leave before everyone's food arrived (I missed out on some really interesting stuff, like Duck and Cherry Pie... Yum), so I didn't get to see if she took pics of the food. Really awesome to hear the story of how she met Glug, the love of her life and a fellow blogger.



So, in conclusion, bloggirls is a great idea. The next one is already scheduled for June, and phillygirl has plans to start similar events in Cape Town and Durban, so if you're a girl blogger in any of those towns, you need to get your bum in motion and sign up. And if you're not... well, start your own network - it's such a cool way of getting to know people (and finding new blogs to lurk around).



A pic for Monday...