This is my last post here. I've moved because I'm battling to access this blog site. For some reason our firewall blocks it. You can find me at:
http://blogs.24.com/planetfan
Hope to see you there.

This week I went to an Indiafusion show. Basically it was a showcase of everything from India. Colourful Saris, Punjabis, shoes, jewellery, handbags, curry and sweets. There was also a lady there who does this henna hand art. It is a temporary tattoo which goes a rich chocolate brown and eventually fades after a few weeks. Indian ladies typically have their hands and arms decorated with this for special occassions. I gave it a go and this is what it looked like when it was still wet. It took her all of 10 minutes do do. The detail is incredible. Unfortunately my colleagues did not react well to this and were quite shocked. Some thought I had burnt my hand and others asked whether I had converted to some strange religion and most wanted to know if the scrolls and dips were symbolic of something. I surprised at how conservative people still are. So I've been dipping my hand in bleach to make it fade faster and it's now all but gone. I think this artwork is incredible but clearly others do not share my appreciation. Perhaps it just doesn't suit a pale hand like mine and probably looks best on a darker Indian skin.

Il Divo.... what can I say? According to Wikipedia : "The idea behind Il Divo's creation came to Simon Cowell after listening to Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman's rendition of Con te partirò. Aware of this new appreciation for lyrical voices and classical music, he decided to form a multinational quartet (Spain, Switzerland, France, and United States) that tried to sound like The Three Tenors and looked like Armani models." And my word, he definitely succeeded! Simon Cowell's pop opera act are slick, clean, good looking and they can belt out a good song or two. A group of my girlfriends and I went to their show last week. I had more fun watching, Sonja, Aldie and Lenie swooning and clutching their hearts than I had watching Il Divo's performance. These men are talented and not just in the vocal department. They are sex on legs. As cheesy as they are, they are hot in their black Armani suits. I think they are a high class Chippendales troupe and if they were to walk towards me at dusk in a yacht club or in a side street in Rome (which is how they photograph them for their publicity shots) I would have a melt down and crumble down in a heap at their feet. There is something for everyone - a clean cut boy next door American called David, a charming but slightly greasy looking Frenchman called Urs (just saying or typing that name sounds suggestive), a perfect and very neat and charming Swiss called Sebastian (he's just perfect) and then the baritone, loves himself and the ladies, a Spaniard called Carlos. See if you can tell who is who from my descriptions.

I'm not going to rush out and buy their albums but I did enjoy the show, the dramatic lighting, the sweeping orchestra, the hand gestures, the smiles and winks at the girls, ladies, mothers and grandmothers, the little boogie hip shaking, the red and white rose petal confetti..........."Somewheeeeeeeeereeeee, Somedaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy, Somehooooooooooowwwwwwww, there is a place for us" Need I say more.............. Oh yes, Il Divo means "Divine Male Performer". Ha!

Two weeks ago the Chinese celebrated their new year. Roughly an hour's drive from my house, in Bronkhorstspruit, is a Chinese Buddhist Temple and they always put on a big to do for their new year. There were lots of food stalls selling all kinds of exotic vegetarian fare as well as dragon candy, lunar new year cakes, chick pea fudge and dumplings. You could buy plastic lunch boxes and go from stall to stall and fill them with goodies. I thought this was a great idea, not only does it save on paper and polystyrene waste but also when you could eat not more you could simply close the lid of the lunch box and take some home for later. Neat and clean and no waste. I ate and ate till I thought I would burst. I have to add that it was also a boiling hot day, at least 35degrees Celsius and the beginning of a two week heat wave.

I've added lots of pics of the temple detail because I like it so much. Wish I had the guts to paint my house like this! All this artwork is done by Chinese artisans and is still a work in progress. What I love about this place is how it screams of colour, and yet one feels so tranquil, calm and peaceful when you are there. These guys are not afraid of using colour, boldly with lots and lots of gold. Our bright and cheerful South African flag fits right in. Going to this temple is like going on holiday to a far off land for a day.

My friend Aldie works for BP and as a special treat she invited me to the MPH07 car show. BP were the main sponsors of the event and she was allowed to take a guest - lucky me. This was the ultimate car show for all the petrol heads out there. It was hosted by Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond from the BBC Prime TV Show called Top Gear Extra which is the most popular motoring programme in the world hand has an estimated 350million fans worldwide. I have to say, that I am no petrol head, in fact I know zilch about cars, but I do like looking at them, especially if they are top of the range, and very very very very expensive. They had the lot at this show, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Porche, Mercedes, Alpha Romeo, Audi TT etc etc and in every colour, crisp white, orange, red, blue and even lime green!! Really nice to look at and I would imagine impossibly uncomfortable to drive. What really grabbed me was how they managed to make cars and even bulldozers dance to music. These drivers, in my opinion, are real men, it takes serious skill to drive with such precision. To my amazement they managed to play soccer with cars. I was oohing and ahhing and screaming with sheer terror and delight. There were three cars per side who had to bump a massive soccer ball into the goal by outdriving and outmanoeuvring once another. With great skill, screeching tyres and minor bumps the South African team beat England by two goals to one. Great fun and a little bit of madness. Yep boys and their toys.

I'm back. I think I'm going to move my blog to somewhere else because I'm finding it impossible to access this one and it's pissing me off! When I have time to check it out I'll let all of you, my valuable and regular readers, know where I've gone too.

Okay, got that off my chest. So much catching up to do. I'm gonna do this in separate posts. Here's my news:

• MPH07 car show with Jeremy Clarkson from BBC Prime Top Gear Extra
• Chinese New Year at Nan Hua temple
• Il Divo Concert

This weekend my friend Sonja, took the time to explain the game of Su Doku to me and……………..I’m hooked. The pic is the first puzzle I completed all by myself. It took forever and I have a stiff neck from concentrating. It’s so bad that I think I may have to go to the physio to get it sorted out. I’m hoping the physio will be of the tall, dark and handsome variety!
Su Doku is great, I like that I can get lost in the puzzle and be completely focused. I’ve bought a book and have since discovered there is an endless variety available. I am limiting myself to one puzzle, max two a night. If I don’t I’m likely to fry my brain and seize up completely.
I will not obsess. I will not obsess. I will not obsess!

For those of you who have known me "longtime" know me as a dark brown brunette. Ever since I can remember I have wanted to be blonde. It's that typical woman thing of never being satisfied with your hair and also I've always wanted to find out if blondes do have more fun. So during the past two years I've gradually lightened my hair and am now about as blonde as I'm ever going to be. And I must say, it's fun and I do get noticed more.

Towards the end of last year a new buyer started at one of our bigger customers which means he knows me "short time". One day I made a silly mistake with some info he needed and he said to me, "oh you are such a blonde" . Huh?!? Once again, those of you who have known me longtime, can picture my face. Being on the receiving end of that comment was such an eye opener. I realise it was said in total jest and no harm was meant, but, I must say, I felt rather insulted. No one has ever called me the equivalent of a silly girl or woman, I've never allowed it and yet because I'm blonde, it is assumed that now it's alright. Before you go dilly on me, and tell me I'm being hyper sensitive, I do realise that this was one incident only, it doesn't happen to me everyday, but gosh, I do know some gorgeous blonde girls to who are on the receiving end of comments like that all the time. Heck I'm one of those people who direct those arrows at them! Big lesson for me, I'm gonna stop doing that.

In a previous posting I raved about how stunning our gardens are at work. My company has bought the building in this picture for extra warehouse space and now this is what I see everytime I drive into the office. It's frightfully dusty and noisy and I just hate this process. It will be lovely once it's completed but for the moment it unbalances me! All this took three weeks to break down. The roses have been pruned and potted and will be replanted once all the alterations have taken place.

Yay, can't wait. Watch this space.

Snow Patrol - Eyes open - is my album of the year for 2006! I simply love it. Every track is good, very very good. My favourite track is Shut Your Eyes. Check it out. This is their fourth album, their third album, called Final Straw, is sold out everywhere. Can't wait to get hold of it. Clearly a lot of people agree with me. Their first and second albums are not available here, and I simply have to order them. The title of their first album is Songs for Polar Bears. How cool is that (ahem, no pun intended!)

I grabbed this pic off their website. This is them in front of U2's stage when they supported them in Brussels in 2005. Snow Patrol are Irish. What is it with the Irish, why are they such great musicians and poets, artists.........?

My mother has discovered her Mojo! I cannot bear New Years eve parties. To me, it is a totally over rated event. I can’t stand the waiting around, the clock watching and then the anti climax once the clock strikes 12. So normally, I stay at home, watch a movie and go to sleep and then picnic or visit friends on New Years Day. Except this year, my mother got it into her head that she wanted to attend the New Years party hosted by her favourite radio station Jacaranda 94.2. They were doing a top 100 party anthems countdown at Montecasino in a venue called La Toscana. Sounded good and she was so keen I didn't want to let her down, so, I agreed to go.
Well………….we get there, it’s a night club – my mom is 61 years old – and I haven’t seen the inside of a club for quite a while! A bit awkward wouldn’t you say? In clubs you stand around, you order drinks, you smoke and make small talk and check out the guys. How the bleep! am I going to do that with my mom! The dance floor opened at 9pm, mom got up and started dancing, so I joined her. And……..we didn’t stop dancing until well after 12pm. The people loved her, they danced with her, had their pictures taken with her like she was some celebrity. And me? They didn’t so much as glance at me – felt like chopped liver. Just another big reminder that not everything is about me and although I felt very self conscious, I had absolutely no reason to be.
All in all, I had a great time. The music (very 80’s) was fabulous and I sang and danced like no one was watching.
I’m not doing any new years resolutions this year, but I have decided to look up more. Looking up, changes your point of view, it opens your eyes and your heart. Happy happy new year everyone.

Because I have cabin fever and the opportunity presented itself, mom and I went on a three day trip to Zimbabwe to see the legendary Victoria Falls. We availed ourselves of one of them special package deals, pay for two stay for three nights, all inclusive blah blah blah. We thought we were going into a country that is merely an extension of South Africa. I was naive, I now realise. Yes I have heard reports about how bad their economy is and that luxury items like butter, soap, Coca Cola, chocolate etc are hard to come by but honestly I thought the media was once again blowing this out of proportion, as they did during our "state of emergency" in the 1980's. Well.................. was I ever so wrong. We arrived at our luxury hotel, no electricity and no running water in our room. The electricity came back on but not the running water. I reported it on four different occasions and eventually kicked up a major stink with the hotel general manager. They fixed it. Everything was massively expensive. Lunch which consisted of two salads and two sodas set us back USD45! One tourist paid USD6 for a Coke at the airport. They ran out of soda water at my hotel so I couldn't have a Rock Shandy. As for diet Coke or Tab, forget it. Butter and jam was served very sparingly - and if you wanted more, it wasn't a problem, it just took forever to be served to you because clearly it is locked up and "issued" upon request in the kitchen. It's like this everywhere and the staff were telling us how they make do by planting vegetable gardens to keep themselves going and doing anything legal for money. Oi, what an eye opener.

BUT! The Victoria Falls were spectacular. Mom and I decided to rough it and not use umbrellas or raincoats. We got soaked, drenched. The water dripped off the sides of our peak caps and our eyelashes. The locals call the falls "Mosi au tunya" which means "the smoke that thunders". Dam right, they are loud and proud. When you stand next to them, you simply must believe in God, it is such a spectacular sight. They are the biggest falls in the world in their depth and width. Twice the size of Niagara and narrower but deeper than the Angel falls in South America. The Vic Falls are 1.7km wide and fall a depth of 107m. In the dry season (which is now) 500million litres of water spills over the edge per minute and this increases to 750million litres of water in the wet season. Quite a strong shower!

The Zambesi river (4th biggest in Africa) also teams with game. We went on a river cruise and saw crocodile, hippos and elephants. The waters are tranquil and calm but they belie what lies beneath. You don't see swans, ducks or geese on this water - nope - too many crocodiles.

The highlight of my trip - I treated myself to a helicopter flip over the falls. It lasted all of 15 minutes and it was an Oh wow experience. First time in a helicopter too.

I'm glad I went, I'm freaked out by the dreadful conditions imposed on these beautiful people, I wish I could help. I'd like to go back in ten years time, to see if there is any improvement. I pray there will be.

Alas my love you do me wrong, to cast me out so discourteously. For I have loved you so long, oh my lady Greensleeves. "Nearish" to my home is a medieval theme restaurant called Greensleeves and instead of working as your common garden variety waitress at a normal restaurant, I opted for the "drama" and "wenched" at Greensleeves as a teenager. This was during the eighties. It was kinda like theatre and I loved it. Some of the people I met there became very important to me and still influence, inspire and help to shape my life today. I worked there for 12 happy years, made friends, fell in love, learned to party and adore live music. It was there that I was introduced to the concept of work hard and play hard and quite importantly it was my training ground for learning to work under pressure. Those of you who have worked in restaurants will agree, the pressure is unlike any other industry. There is always an element of chaos. Some of the people are still there, one lady has worked at Greensleeves every weekend for 33 years!! It gets into your blood.

A few weeks ago, I had the occasion to go as a guest to Greensleeves with a group of friends. It was wonderful. Everything - and- nothing has changed. I could still recall the script of the show word for word. The food looks and tastes the same, but the feast halls and the kitchen have been updated and modernised. The costumes for the serving staff (wenches and lackeys) and the entertainment staff are fresh, new and sparkly and like all successful businesses they have succumbed to technology - all orders are computerised. No more handwritten orders. I can remember Aldie and I used to scream with laughter at some of the creative spellings and abbreviations used for the drinks orders by the wenches and lackeys. And then we would bawl them out for being unclear. It was also a great way of getting to know them, you could tell so much from their handwriting and the way they listed their orders. I can remember the girls were inclined to be slow and ultra neat and the boys fast and furious and very cocky.

I had a wonderful evening. It was a happy reunion - Aldie and I even considered going back to run for the lackeys and wenches for old times sake. Perhaps we will, watch this space.