Track day

We vowed we'd go return to the Grand Prix Circuit and this past Saturday we did! 

Thankfully this time there was no rain, only sunshine and wind strong enough to knock you senseless. 

It's not like we've ever ridden one or even that we have a relation who drives these babies, but man alive, we get an adrenaline rush just from the sound and the trail of dust coating your face after they whizz by.

Our friend Annaline gleefully snapped hundreds of photo's whilst we chatted with Mark and spoke about all things cars.

 Our highlight was watching them round the s's when one car spun out of control onto the grass. And we may or may not have cheered with excitement and longed to see more action. That doesn't make us bad people right?! haha!

After their final laps, we couldn't hide our perma-smiles. 

Now if only we could find someone willing to take us along as a passenger down the track...

Breakfast of champs

My dad is in SA for 2 weeks, and last Friday he stopped by E-town for a 2 day visit. Love it when he comes home! I only get to see my fam once or twice a year, so it's like heaven when one or all of them come to visit. On a side note, how old do you think he looks?

We had the best breakfast EVER on Saturday morn. After J hit the gym with our upstairs neighbours and good friends (holla to the VH's!), we headed upstairs to their deck for a hearty breakfast consisting of fruit salad, bacon, eggs, rolls, mushrooms, onion and waffles. Kinda cancels out that gym session ha! Whilst we feasted on such luxurious foods, we plonked ourselves on the couch and watched the big rugby match on the telly. Well some of us were watching, I preferred to play dolls with 5 year old Keelynne. I should mention that whilst all this was happening, my dad practically ran to the other side of town for his daily run of 10 km's! Crikey!

The remainder of Saturday was devoted to the Olympics...until 11pm. Good thing we're all sport nuts.

After a brilliant morning at church on Sunday, we sadly had to drop M off at the airport at 15:30 to catch his flight to Gauteng where he's been spending the remainder of his SA business trip. Even though he's 10 hours away it still feels great to know that he's not too far away. His visit made us both stoked for our holiday in December. In fact we spent Sunday arvie making a list of places to visit, people to see, souvenirs to purchase and foods to eat when we get there. Can't.Wait!

Nothing like a kick-back weekend filled with family, friends and good chow!

Positive influences

Rewind 15 years when I was an awkward, 'unnatural' (thanks mum), creative, but slightly weird 9 year old. My family and I had moved from my hometown in Cape Town to the hot Pretoria (now called Tshwane) for my dad's business. I was blessed to meet the two greatest girl's who have had a major impact in my life - enter the Martin cousins, Kerry-Anne and Stayci (aka Kebs & Steak). They are the kind of girls who make you feel like part of the family, who desire to explore their talents, ditch bad for good and who like adventure. In short they are every mothers ideal daughter and whom they hope their sons marry. They were and still are good examples to me.  To this day we have still never had an argument! We have simply enjoyed 15 years and counting of beautiful friendship. Here's a pic from the ole archives:

Haha, these pics are from a Stake Young Women camp we attended at age 13. Eish check us rocking our Dry Macs...ahaha, clearly we were all about style. On the top is me and Kebs and on the bottom is Steak and I cooking scrambly eggs that clearly required great concentration.

With any friendship, of course, comes influence. Now if you ask our parents today who influenced whom you'll get very different stories. See, it's not like we were bad influences, we were just different. We formed a club (the T.T.T) much like the Famous Five. We re-enacted musicals and put on shows for our families. We sang and danced to barn dance music (hahaha) and climbed the walls of a graveyard to have picnics. We made 'potions' from various household cleaners and buried them in the garden. We built bonfires, wrote 3-way stories and even bound a collection of short stories called 'Bedtime Laughs and Creepers'. We played soccer in the heat of the day, swam all day long when the municipality shut down electricity and suffered stings from acorns during our 'acorn wars' in the garden. We attempted baking (mostly meringues) and cooking dinners (after an hour in the oven the chicken still bled hahahaha). We fan girled over Harry Potter and Brendan Fraser in The Mummy. We slaved away helping Steak's dad build a granny flat and washed cars, babysat and sold puddings as our 'business'. We attended church together, learnt together and progressed in all the right ways together.

This particular incident of which I blog about today started around the age of 9 when for some bizarre reason or other, Kebs and I decided to write to various manufacturing companies to express our satisfaction with their products. We wrote to the manufacturers of Handy Andy, Nestle chocolates, Cadbury, Omo etc. They all wrote back expressing their gratitude and Nestle even sent us a free recipe book.

So when I recently opened a pack of Maggi 2 minute noodles and discovered yet again no flavouring sachet inside, in annoyance I opened the dustbin and actually hovered mid-air as I thought of my childhood days. I could actually do something about this, as silly at it seems. Without a moment longer to think of how ridiculous I may sound, I dialled up Nestle's customer line and expressed my dissatisfaction. I figure I'm entitled to this because of my many kind letters and ideas for commercials hahaha! I didn't think anything would come of it but then a few days later I received a delightful letter and coupon for 4 free packages of 2 min noodles. And in our blessed land, a coupon is kind of a big deal simply because we don't have coupons.

Of course I immediately told Kebs who shared in my joy.

The little 9 year old in me can't help but think that this, to us, is nothing short of VICTORY!

Temple trip for Hyrum

Last weekend (yes yes I'm mega late with this post haha) Thursday we put our everyday lives on hold and took a plane to Johannesburg. Admittedly this trip had three purposes: first and foremost was to visit the Johannesburg Temple for our brother Hyrum as he's leaving on his mission this coming Wednesday, 2) to spend time with our good friends (and L's childhood best friends) the Martin's and Gosling's, 3) be interviewed for a VISA to the United States of Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaamerica!

Upon arrival in JHB we had lots of time to spare before Stayci was due home to meet us, so we did what any small town folk do and hit up a shopping centre where there is way more selection of pretty much anything and everything. So what if we went to East Rand Mall (ahahahahah), we still found some good clothes, including a sweet little MODEST (hello miracle) silver polkadot dress. You bet your socks I bought it. After that brilliant excursion we headed to Tshwane (aka Pretoria) to see our favourite Gosling's. Love that girl! We then went over to Scrooge and Marley's Costume shop to see how much it's grown and then followed that with a visit at the Martin's in our favourite area in Pretoria, Irene (my home away from original home, wherever that might be haha). There we had a great catch up chat with Kebs, Meags, aunty Debbie and uncle Clive. That family is incredible in every way and I often miss them.

By 18:00 Joe was finished with his church meetings so we returned to Doringkloof to meet him at their place and decided to have Indian cuisine for dinner. Not sure of the name of the restaurant but by George it was out-of-this-world DIVINE! A stack of buttery naan bread the size of a pillow case was placed in the centre of the table along with 4 small pots of various curries. I drool at the thought its taste...must. go. back.

The Gosling's were kind enough to let us crash in their tiny flat for the night. Our interview for the VISA's was scheduled at the American Embassy in Sandton the next morning at 8:00AM. Knowing how crazy JHB traffic is and how important these VISA's were to us, we decided to leave early...like 5:30AM early. We assumed it would take about 2 hours to get there...Well imagine our utter amazement when we pulled up at the door to the embassy at 6:15AM! This was definitely an LOL moment for us all. There we were, completely knackered with no place to go, literally at the crack of dawn. So folks, we did the only logical thing we could do and go to Sandton Mall for a 'healthy' breakfast of Mickey D's.

Ja we'll probably never do that again.

The interview for the VISA's went extremely smoothly and quickly, despite the many stories we heard of how long it takes. We brought an envelope full of documents supporting our desire to merely visit that first world country and making it clear that we have no intention of immigrating. And you know what, after a 5 minute chat with a very friendly man we were granted VISA's. 10 year VISA's people. 10 years! BIG SMILES!  Haha, on a side note, one of the funniest moments when waiting to be called for our interview was overhearing another woman during her interview which went something like this:

American: Good morning maa'm, where do you plan on travelling to?

Woman: ...... the USA.

...

American: When do you plan on visiting?

Woman: Tomorrow. I was supposed to leave today but I didn't have my VISA.

Ai shame, poor thing... her vague answers didn't help her much. We were doubled over in stitches from laughing so hard.

After a successful and positive American Embassy experience, we went to the temple where we hung about and took naps until later that night when the rest of the W's arrived and we attended a wonderful and spiritually uplifting session at the temple. The Bester's came along too for support and we took some family pics for proof of the happy time we all had.

Early on Saturday morn we again attended another session and Stayci made a special trip (crikey she drove all the way on a scooter!! Bless her good, kind heart!) to spend the last bit of time with us before we went back to O.R. Tambo International and took a plane back to our humid city.

There's nothing like a trip to the temple to calm you down in a year that is already proving to be hectic and all about schedules. The spirit felt there is enough to revive us to persevere and to enjoy even the small things in life that bring us happiness amid the business.

And with that we better announce that we will be heading off to Salt Lake City, Utah for a wonderful Christmas holiday with L's fam! That means SNOW! Happiness!!

2012 is proving to be a very exciting year!

For Lyss, from Ren

Once upon a time, L (also known to some as Ren) went to an American high school where she met one of her bestest friends ever, Lyss (also known to some as Alyssa, which would be her actual name). Lyss kept me sane, or insane - hard to decide, throughout those years of US history, English, Journalism and all other classes that had potential to be boring. If I told you how many poptarts we ate those 3 years of high school you might hurl. Lyss is hilarious. She had me in stitches in even the saddest of times. She is incredibly loyal and kind hearted too, and will go out of her way to make you happy or help you out (like the time I needed a foreign person for a film festival ad and she so willingly stepped in at the last moment to show off her mad French skills!). With a friend like Lyss it would be silly to say goodbye after high school, so naturally we remained friends. Now after all those years (haha, really so old...) we're still friends and even though we live thousands of miles apart, we can still talk as though we saw each other a second ago. I'm so proud of her for her great achievements in life. Here's a pic from the ole archives. We're the 2 on the left.

So it's when she sent me these fabulous glasses that I laughed and laughed and felt instant gratitude for this little gift. Even on the other side of the world she still manages to put a smile on my face. Thank you my American-Canadian-honorary African friend!  As promised Lyss, here's a pic (feast yo' eyez on this Fiddler!):

Me thinks this is a good look, oui?

Visit from the Gosling's

We were really blessed this week to have my childhood best friend Stayci, her husband Joe and his sister Rebecca from England visit us. Stayci and Joe live in Gauteng (10 hours away from us) so we rarely get to see them, let alone spend any quality time with them. One of my greatest wishes as a child was that when someday  us 3 girls in the T.T.T (The Terrific Three -- only the best club ever, don't mock...holla to Kebs and Steak!) marry the men of our dreams and for those said men to become good friends. That dream has come true! Joe and Jarom must have been separated at birth. They are both laid back, love English footie, playing FIFA till the cows come home, eating meat and reminiscing about their missions. Incidentally, they served their missions at the same time, only J served in Utah and Joe served in Idaho. Also whilst one is directly from England and speaks with a thick English accent, J is half British as his dad comes from England. So...yes, I think this is neat.

 Since the Gosling's had never been to East London before (if you exclude briefly landing a helicopter in E.L en route to Port Alfred) we really wanted them to have the full E.L experience which included plenty of tanning and swimming at the beach (Our little Molly dolly got to experience the beach for the first time!), shopping at Hemingways, dinner with the parents and missionaries, having a couple braais, watching too many episodes to count of 'The Office', eating plenty of ribs and buffalo wings at the Spur for R90, playing games, laughing over Trevor Noah, scouring the summer carnival flea market, listening to Xhosa rap music, making homemade nougat ice-cream, and relaxing. OK sure there is more to this little town than that but mother nature wasn't cooperating.

The brilliant thing about hanging out with them is that we don't have to do much in order to have a great time. They are fun, optimistic, happy people and you can't help but feel inspired by them.

Yvette's Matric Dance

*Sniff sniff* Our last matric Young Woman attended her farewell dance last Thursday. I watched in pure amazement as two of the other matric YW came to assist Yvette in getting all prepped for her dance. These girls have each others' backs. They truly love and care for one other and will do anything to help them. They treated her like royalty that night, just as she had done with them. Right away Motshabi and I glued on her nails and filed them down whilst Natalie applied her make-up. Then we all tackled her hair and dress. The end result = perfection. I'm really proud of Yvette for choosing to have her dress made modest. I think she looked like a real princess. Better than any celebrity I've ever seen!

Especially for Rocky

One of our favourte teens turned the big 1-6 this week! Rocky is a one-of-a-kind young man who has a special place in our hearts. Not only is he hilarious and fun, but he is also a reliable hometeaching companion to J, a stellar seminary student, and he is pretty much like part of the family.

His treat request for his 'born day' was a cheesecake. CHEESECAKE. I have never so much as even attempted to make a cheesecake before...only eat lots of it (good times). So for the past month and a half I have been researching cheesecake to death, trying to find the perfect 'non-schlep' recipe and praying like crazy for some cheesecake baking skills. Honestly I was just going to purchase one that I know would be delectable, however I knew this had to come from the heart and I had to just 'woman-up' and face this challenge head on...or hands on. With Monday being D-Day I settled on a recipe, purchased the ingredients, enlisted the help of little bro S and made it in a matter on minutes.To my relief it got the thumbs up from both Rocky and Shantal. And surprisingly it even tasted like cheesecake! I consider that an achievement! So here's to Rocky for giving me the challenge, here's to J for spurring me on, here's to little bro S for wacking the life out of the biscuits for the base, and here's to Rocky for an awesome 16th year!

Matric farewells

A few of our young women are in Matric this year. It's a sad thought that soon they will leave YW for good and embark on a new journey into adulthood. Some of these special girls are going to their farewell dances and so far I've been lucky enough to see/help them get ready and see 'em just before they leave. There aren't enough words in the English language to describe how proud I am of them for choosing to wear modest dresses when fashion dictates otherwise and for choosing good dates who are going to look out for them and treat them like the princesses they are -- OK so I'm mostly biased because S' date was our awesome brother Hyrum! For that their beauty radiates not only from their outside shells, but most importantly from inside-out. I am SO proud of you Shantal and Motshabi!

Saturday...

I had the privilege of spending Saturday morning with this awesome girl:

We enjoyed a morning of window shopping, errands, driving, and  milo milkshakes. Beat that!

Admirals

Before the Uruguay/Germany game on the 10th of July, we went to have dinner at Admirals - one of the only buffet restaurants in our region, well in Port Elizabeth anyway. We went with these awesome friends (namely Bishop, Hayley, Corith, Candice and her parents):

AH their food selection was out of this world! They even had candy floss for pudding! Amongst their finest selections were (click to enlarge)...

Which Jarom tried ALL of! And the verdict? Kangaroo is tough, mapane worms taste like teabags, kudu aint lekker, and crocodile? well that tastes like chicken, of course!

Having the option of eating these things is just another reason why we love our homeland! :)