Mission Impossible; Actually Mission Possible.

I wanted to tell you about our strategy day....Considering I almost never relate to what I actually do 80% of the time (wel minus movies of course!)

We have two sort of Managers let’s call them M&L.

M&L were top secret about this strategy day, so only the day before (Friday) we were given our formal invites (via a DVD). On the DVD was a sort of James Bond Mission Impossible sort of theme with our mascot the Zebra and some cool James bond special effects to the Music of Mission Impossible.

On Saturday I reluctantly headed off to work. ON a Saturday!!

Dressed in jeans and takkies I assumed the funnest thing we could possibly do was have some famous person talk to us but BOY did they literally throw me overboard.

Next we were told the Gear, Combats, a towel, a toiletry bag and an evening dress.

And on Saturday at 7.30am we met at the headquarter, ie The Company.

So on this DVD was a soduko(a different one for each of us) and in the corner right hand corner was a number which sorted us into our secret mission groups.

Half sleepy we arrive at the head quarters, seated in an Auditorium in our secret agents teams.

So we all sitting in our groups and they start playing a clip on the screen in our Auditorium.

Its M&L dressed up in sunglasses and black coats and graphic designed like its a Bond movie and we given instructions like,

"Listen carefully, cause we dont repeat ourselves twice"

(oh so scary all serious like we burst out laughing),

"On level P1, there are taxis for each Secret Agent Group, with a taxi and a laptop. On the Laptop is your first mission, and the games starts NOW!!"

So like crazy people we all run, and there really are taxis and inside is the laptop, we switch it on (with instructions in an envelop), and its M&L again, all in black and white really going with the Secret Agent theme,

“Our mission is an aquatic one, where we need to swim to great depths, with sharks and pretty fish, there is a bouy that will save us to the next mission"

So we think ok it has to be the aquarium, so off we go.

We the first to arrive and then realize the other teams all start with different missions.

We see the COMPANY sign, run towards it and are ushered to the big tank.

A few weeks ago, our marketing person was looking for divers for an EGOLI advert, and even sent some people on a diving course. Little did we know they trained divers especially for this task, although they too weren’t informed of the days invent, a diver was placed in each team, and the task was not easy.

The diver got into a wet suit, got an oxygen tank and had to dive into the tank with SHARKS (with ugly big teeth). One of the aquarium divers went with them. In the tank they had to find our clue, which we figured had to be a key from the clues on the DVD.

Superman our diver was fearless and plunged in for the dive, finding the key shortly.

The key was a key to a locker at a Gym, Virgin, Active at the Point. With our laanie taxi driver Adenaan, off we go, breaking speed limits, we are on a mission, Mission Possible.

We get to the gym, and rush to the lockers, Alexia manages to find the clues, pictures of a place, familiar place, next to the Radison at the Waterfront!

We arrive and there is a boat,

a boat means there is water,

water means we could find a bouy.

All strapped up in life jackets we venture off into the ocean, blazing blaring, at a really fast speed we venture off.

We eventually find the bouy (Actually it got tangled in a small fishing boats line), and on the bouy is a rope and on the rope is a bottle and in the bottle is our next clue.

So off we go on our boat ride back to shore and we are handed a second CD, Mission One complete.

Off we go listening to the clues said very artfully by M&L.

“Wade through a lot of Crap from our clients”

They give us directions to a corner of two roads in Town and off we go. We all get out and we see nothing only a bag full oh uhmn crap. They cant seriously be seriously, but they were just that. Alam very gallantly starts going through the dirt and we find a paper with instructions.

Meanwhile Superman hears the public phone ring nearby and goes to answer it. The phonecall says, you have to run and you have to run now, no taking a taxi and off we dash like lunatics to directions on a piece of crappy paper leading us to opposite the Castle.

On the pavement is some guys with gum boots and torches and a ladder going down down down a ladder into the sewers.

We didn’t find the Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles, but we did find our next clue after walking which felt like forever in the dark with huge gum boots in a sewer filled with cockroaches, and a tiny little light bobbing from our heads.

Mission Two complete.

Our next clue was handed by the “SEWER guys”

“Information is free and only cocts R8” M&L bellowed.

THE SATURDAY Argus!!

We find the next SECRET MISSION I in the classifieds section of the paper, hmmn the location of the SECRET party tonight can be found when we go to great heights at Culemborg?

You have got to be joking but we went on a helicopter ride, that was so cool and amazing, And on top of our COMPANY building we find the secret address of the secret party for the secret agents on a massive not so secret poster on our buildings roof.

That was so awesome but our day is not complete as yet.

We abseil off the half finished bridge in Town, we have a game of paintball shooting, and we have a Spiderwoman in our team when Shams gallantly climbs up the rock wall effortlessly.

And our final mission is to make money out of a R50, which leads us to the waterfront selling Pepsis! And Corder being very dashing and even selling ICE to make money !!

Off we head back to headquarters were we just hang out and talk a bit.

We flew, we were in and on the water, we abseiled down a bridge, we went below the ground, we climbed we did almost everything possible for us to do.

And the message was anything was possible (well that and some other businessy very private Company mattersJ top agent stuff of course)

In the eve we were dashed to a beautiful house in Camps bay (top Billing style) complete with those swimming pools were the waterfalls over on the sides.

We laughed, we ate and we danced us silly.

At one o clock I climbed in my bed, and NEVER would have imagined that they had planned ALL of that! I was impressed and wonder if they will be able to impress me again, after all when you knock the socks off me where else can they possibly go?

I have a new found respect for what boring-talk-talk-airy –flairy strategy days are like.

PS: Pictures to Follow

UPDATE

Mood
Ok ish slighty in the mood for movies

What I did this morning
Watched Driving Lesson with that Ron Weasly from Harry Potter, I was in an arty movie mood. It was ok not as brilliant as I had hoped

For Lunch I had:
A bit of Woolies butternut soup followed by a delicious sandwhich with extra mature Cheddar cheese (from Woolies of course) and Pepper Dews Yum Yum

Wearing:
A green pair of three quarter courdreys, pink top and funky Nine West Boots.

Read:
Domestic Goddess by Kinsella
Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Production

Number of times to gym this week:
Twice so far (but if I add tomorrow its thrice)

Just Maybe…

I thought I had figured it out. I thought I had found the exact ingredients, conjured the correct combinations and extracted the perfect solution, I thought I had found the answer that should be replied to the most asked questions.

Every so often you feel this bliss, and I must admit it has started occurring a lot more often.

Maybe its because I have started become more accepting, of a body not replicated to that of Halle Berry on a bad day, but one that seems fairly comfortable clothed in a size 14 funky ¾ corduroy jeans and a bright red shirt with hair that will always be too curly and never straight enough.

Maybe it’s the fact that in the end I am doing exactly what they wanted, however the way I am doing it, is exactly the way I had always wanted.

Maybe it’s letting go of pressures that would sink me even though I am an excellent swimmer.

Maybe it’s because I found a man to love who loves me and whom I would never have loved because nothing is good enough and his love and mine would never suffice.

Maybe it’s letting go of perfection and the need to paint this perfect picture and accept the untidy splatters of an inexperienced and uneducated artist.

Maybe it’s because even God in her infinite wisdom is smiling at me, almost like she knows something I don’t.

Maybe its because Nine West has a sale on and boots in my colour and in my size!!

Just Maybe…

Divinely Delicious Butter Chicken (At the Request of Marlene)

Marinade

250ml of plain yoghurt (the orange and white candy stripe carton)

2 tablespoons of Lemon Juice

2 table spoons of minced garlic and ginger paste

2 tspns chicken braai

A quarter teaspn chillie powder

¼ tspn fine cloves

¼ tspn fne cinnamon

¼ tspn fine cardamom

3 tspn chicken braai

Mix all of the above and marinate about 500g of chicken breasts in this. The longer you marinade the yummier this get but u can make and fry immediately if u like.

Fry this in a pan with a little bit of olive or fish oil, just wet the pan with oil and fry till golden brown.

Sauce

• Just a little less than 1 tin of fine tomato puree pour into a pot on low heat
• Add a knob of butter (its supposed to be half a cup but I have omitted the butter ironically altogether)
• Add the rest of the marinade that remains in the bowl and stir into the pot with the tomato and butter.
• Add 2 TBspns lemon juice
• Hmmn add the chicken and give it a nice simmer
• After the simmer add some coriander if you want some more flavor although this isn’t according to the proper butter chicken recipe

And Finally the CREAM

• Add about 100-125ml of fresh cream (unwhipped, I’m sure you can use the rest in a very delicious way) just before serving and stir in.
• The color should be a rich orangey gravy yum yum yum

To be served with steamed Basmati rice and roast potatoes and finished with a delicious dessert. Check the desserts in store:)

What a lovely evening, what an incredible day. Got up at like 5.30 am but still managed to get to work relatively late. I can so understand How Bridgette Jones manages to get late once you start looking at what you need to wear.

Black pants is always a winner, but the shirt didn’t go with the jersey and the jersey that did match the shirt needed an iron, but the iron was in the high cupboard and funnily enough the iron matched the jersey and shirt but there is seriously a limit to accessorizing.

The day starts with one of those massive meetings where the BIG BOSSES calls all of us into a meeting and they are like rearranging 60 of us on the floor. Which means the colleagues I am so used to are moving actually I am the one who has moved and I already miss my old seat!

Oh well, on a brighter note B and I managed to watched a movie very aptly titled Hot Fuzz.

If you know me well enough you oughtta know that I am not a fan of action but after rather a lengthy negotiation process (the Messengers reviews didn’t look all that good which meant I gave in) B and I watched a movie that excuse my pun (hmmn a hot cross bun would be good) blew me away literally!!

Its so stupid, its stupefying, its so funny you don’t laugh out loud but merely laugh in shock that it can be that good. When they mean to scare you, you literally jump out of your seat, LITERALLY, it happens once and NO I am not telling you where.

There was a deeper message, you don’t need to look for it, but its not one of those preachy movies, its not a feel good movie but one cant help feeling so thereafter.

Its not life altering but for the two hours it played, it sure as hell made those two hours ultra interesting.

five star, 10/10

http://images.google.co.za/imgres?imgurl=http://chud.com/nextraimages/hotfuzzonesheetsmall.jpg&imgrefurl=http://chud.com/reviews/9805&h=446&w=300&sz=56&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=KXRQP6mGtsBnHM:&tbnh=127&tbnw=85&prev=/images%3Fq%3DHot%2BFuzz%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DG

My Carrie Bradshaw Moment

I have been home off sick for a bit. I was watching my old Sex n The city DVDs and came across an episode I could only so much relate to.

Season 4, the episode titled MOTHERBOARD.

I was typing happily along, minding my own business when my pc crashed. Although I may not have a MAC (what is the big deal about this MAC ? Everyone seems to be SOO into the MAC), my little PC is where I write my little episodes, bloggs and chat from.

And there it crashes.

My hard drive was finished, the Warrantee had expired, and I totally forgot to back up my hard drive which meant I lost EVERYTHING.

And no Aiden to buy me a new funky MAC, but I did manage to get a new hard drive (THANK U HASSAN)!!

And here I am again writing feeling rather peckish, in the mood for a BIG MAC

just why

Why do we HAVE to conform so much an do what everyone expects of us just why? When, had my goals and dreams disintegrated and was conveniently replaced by something more conventional? Why must we compromise so much to the point where our true selves are hardly reflected in our own selves so all that remains is minor glimpses of who we were supposed to be? Where is the truth and the freedom we so fight for when we ourselves are not liberated to truly do what we feel? Why does the media dictate what we should like, who are they to define beauty?

When is the sun ever going to really start shining instead of the fluorescent artificial ones that have lit up our lives because of all the dark clouds hiding the real sun.

Its about time!!

Its been a long lingering month. When I wake in the mrn, the sun has not bothered to rise. Unfortunately I do not have that option and begrudgingly proceed, a slave to the mundane and conservative human habit of working

A brief stint to Jozi last week however vapourised three days of my working week. It included a training Session at THE companies office in Jozi. I felt like a little Cape Farmer, our humble abode is pale in comparison to the TAj Mahal in Sandton.

Ray and I had my favourite dish at Bukhara, and to seal it all off I had a chocolate ice cream and Haagen Das(my first taste and who my lips yearned for more)

Work has inhabited almost all my time, although I do still have time for some brilliant movie reviews!

Music and Lyrics
With gorgeous Hugh Grant and those adorable laghter lines and Drew Barrymore who also adds her own element of cuteness. Hugh is a Musician (he creates melodies) and Drew is a plant waterer/Weigh Less worker (yeah like how do you ever wear such gorgeous clothes earning a salary from those lousy jobs), Hugh was in a band which had a very catchy song called POP GOES MY HEART but is no a nobody who used to be a somebody.
I am not going to give it all away but I thought it entertaining, perhaps predictable (the usual, guy and gal fall inlove, they both have their own issues to deal with but in the end...they live happily ever after) but the songs I thought were pretty wicked, very catchy and I didnt mind watching Hugh do that hip thing dance move with a tight pants and a mullet hair style.
Hmn a 7/10 I rekon

The Prestige
Its good hey, and I never expected it to be. Two magicians (both very cute) are friends who become enemies.
They try to discover each others tricks and illusions.
I think it gives a few magicians codes secrets, like the trick with the bird! I had no idea that a bird REALLY dies when doing that trick.
Which makes you wonder...about a lot of other tricks. I dont want to tell too much, but listen carefully cause at the end you are going to be surprised!!

That is all I have time for now but please keep glued. I am currently addicted to Smallville, I just completed watching season 3,4 and 5 in the past two weeks!!
So more reviews shall soon be revealed....

Hello There

So I have had a crazy week, KD (my boyf) and I went to watch 3 Japaneese movies this week, all at the Movie festival.

Waterboys was the best of the three and I must admit one of the best movies I have seen in a really long time. It was really performed with passion, and the humour, aah I laughed me so silly and the guys next to me nearly choked on popcorn with laughter.
Its about these five nerdy outcast guys at a school who decide to d this synchronized swimming number for the school festival and the adventured ajoined to them in collaorating this performance.
It includes a shy teacher(its where the adventure starts), a trainer who has a more arped way of teaching than Mr Miyaagi (from Karate Kid) who has an almost alergic reaction to cool music, and ofcourse your usual "Cool" bunch of kids and a really strong cute girl that the main character falls for.
The cast includes a 'used to be cool kid" with an Afro (bare in mind he is Japaneese), the usual cute but unconfident boy, fanatical areobic dancer, a Japaneese drag queen and so much more.
I would give t 9/10 really super and I really was impressed.

Biliken, a sort of geni who makes wishes come true goes on many adventures with peoples strange requests somethimes he pleases and sometimes he mucks up, a 6 and a half out of ten.


Pulse, a horror which has alredy been done in America (why does America steal all the Japaneese Horror? Its almost as bad as Bollywood stealing from Hollywood), it was ok, and I am assuming its bette3r than the English version.
I screamed my guts out, I dont have the staminer for horrors like i used to and KD occasionall softly scratching me to freak me out even more doesnt help.

A Triangle has three Angles

Zaara

A gaze was all it was ever meant to be and desire ignited flames which would burn woods which housed many animals which weren’t due to die as yet. As I climbed into a more comfortable position between his arm and chest I smelled his hair and the guilt hit in. I felt nauseous for a brief moment, in my stomach like an invisible ball filled with sickly puss which settled along the lining of my stomach.

He looked at me, with warm eyes, eyes that cared, and I slid in deeper in that embrace, that forbidden embrace.

My phone rang and I let it ring the Beyonce tune, voice mail could take that, Saturdays one should not be disturbed even if it is your husband.

Shibeer and I have known each other four months, we met per accident at a work conference, he was at the Johannesburg branch , I was at the Cape Town branch. At the time I was a well still newly wed, blushing and glowing and blissfully happy.

My husband Sameer was everything husbands should be, epiphany of perfection, kind, sweet and trusting, the sort that cooks supper without being told and gives u unannounced massages without complaining.

I loved Sameer.

Shibeer and I happened by accident, a perpetual accident and like magnets were attracted t each other with a force a force that transcended logical judge ment and moral distinctions.

The first time we slept together, I just lay there, no one made me feel so good. Not that Sameer and I lacked in any way, it was just different, forbidden and something that never could happen again. But everytime I flew down, I gravitated to his bachelor pad and we made the same mistake over and over again until the guilt almost became comfortable.

I was two months pregnant, I always wanted children so it hardly came as a shock in the eighth moth of our marriage. Our parents were ecstatic, Sameers mother literally glowed that she was finally going to become a grandmother.

I looked forward to four months of maternity leave, my mum would help out with the baby and I had my full families supprt. Maybe this would even change me, change my behavior and feelings towards Shibeer

Sameer

He met her per accident really. She was standing in front of him at Seattle Coffee shop and was reading the Business papers. Her hair slightly curled at her forehead and her lips were a sft pinky red, her skin lterally glowed, she was cute, curvy, maybe a bit plump but in a cute way that made him want to cuddle her. But her eyes were deep, pretty, no beautiful and like in those corny romance novels it was love at first sight.

So he nearly stalked here until he realized that she would be at this coffee shop every Saturday morning at exactly 8.30 and even though he wasn’t a morning person, he made sure he could get a glimpse of her for 8 Saturdays thereafter, until one day she actually spoke to him, it really started as her asking to read the paper.

She was funny if not a tad bit shy, her fingers were chubby, and she was not wearing the most flattering t shirt, it looked like she had woken up and jumped into a track top, but it didn’t really matter.

He adored her and would always adore her.

Her kisses were soft and enduring, she had infectious laughter at the arbest thins, a tad bit ditzy, smart in that quirky way. She loved him, he could feel it, and she professed it in letters she wrote on pink Garfield paper, maybe it wasn’t as mch as he loved her but it was enogh and that was all that mattered. Love really wasn’t an equation that had to balance out.

Shibeer

It always hurts, but the pain was unbearale at times, so much so that a few times he would literally stalk her. He flowered her to the coffee shop they used to go to and there she sat, with him, him holding a new guys hands, kissing another mans lips and it burnt him, his wound was infected with hurt and hate.

He was not possessive, he was actually qute a gentlemen, kind and sweet, funny and loving.

He had invested a year in her, he bought her flowers and a gold bracelet for her birthday. They even walked past jewelry stores looking at engagement rings, he envisioned it all with her, a home, a wife, a mother, every single thing. She was part of him, such a big integral part, the heart, the main valve, and she had just messed it all up.

He didn’t understand the excuse, it really wasn’t even one, it was a pathetic excuse, it made him feel weak and frustrated, how could she do this to him. Three months he mourned, silently moaned, to his friends and family he pretended to be happy and okay, inside he was decaying.

It was at a work function where he nearly cracked, when he saw her with the new man, at his work function. She was in the same industry as him, but surely she new that his friends and colleagues would be there, did she have no dignity? No respect for him? He rushed out to get a breath of air on an empty terrace and there she stood, her name was Zaara, and she was spewing her ghuts out.

Zaara

She was happy to be going to Joburg, she needed to be away from a perfect ness which was nearly choking. Sameer and her had been married for four moths and she was having second thoughts, serious second thoughts.

He was getting to her. The clinginess, the doing everything togetherness, maybe she really wasn’t the marrying material. Wasn’t that what Adam had told her. Adam was her first boyfriend the one who broke her heart, the one who told her, she just wasn’t the sort of girl you married, the one who messed her up so bad it took a long time to get strong and regain her self respect again.

Adam was in the papers again, some big deal, some millions he brought into Alaan Gray.

Sameer was perfect too perfect and it was bugging her. She took into consideration her period was due, due ay moment now and that usually made her a tad bit irrational, and emotional.

Four days later, it was very over due and in her stay in Joburg she needed to take a pregnancy test after a very embarrassing encounter of spewing her guts out on a balcony at a la did a work event with a man who was kind enough to get her a tissue.

Dear Blgspot

I am having a really nice weekend so far. Yesterday i went to watch a movie, Material girls and yes it was aimed at 12 year olds but I was in the mood to watch crap, i was in the mood for something teenagey, a non brainer. Then I also got me a cool beach bag for a bargain (I LOVE THE BODY SHOP) and i managed to get myself the new nigella Lawson book called FEAST.

My cuz just dropped me home I was at a picnic, a HUGE EXTENDED family function and met some of my family (the nice kind) from the UK.

Now I am waiting for THE BOY to pic me up so we can wactch this movie that he really wants to see.

Love Z

When it pours, it rains, and there wasnt a cloud in the sky today!

Love and a Kitten

She smiled at him innocently as he picked up the kitten. She didn’t hate cats but she wasn’t particularly fond of them, tolerated them really, only because toleration was the only affection she could really convey to those tiny feline creatures.

Fond memories of a tiny black kitten named Peanut Butter sifted into her head as she tried desperately to forget. She never ever found out Peanut Butters gender but Peanut Butter seemed a uni sex enough name as opposed to Oprah which was her next option.

He picked up his kitten with such tenderness and studied her as if her personality was vividly displayed by her every move. Her face revealed hidden emotions only he and other cat lovers could really decipher, she stood there like a dead duck feeling very artificial for saying “Ah how cute.” and cursed herself for sounding like an idiot.

What she really wanted was to let him know that she cared about things that he cared about purely because she cared about him.

He put the kitty down and it played by his feet purring for more attention.

She almost felt like she was intruding on this world he transported himself to, him and his kitty and she felt awkward.

He disappeared into the kitchen and she patted the kitty on her head between the ears and it purred.

He returned with a glass of juice and she realized she was thirsty and dropped the Nine West bag Nine times fuller than it needed to be.

He slipped his hand into hers and it felt sticky and moist. It didn’t matter really and he stared at her with adoration just as he did a few minutes ago with the cat.

Adoration is what most women yearn for. That feeling of being admired like a Goddess somehow comforts the wickedness and message the media infringes on us for not being, thin and pretty enough. That gaze seemed to comfort that endless nagging magazines message of imperfection, an adoptive mother who constantly pointed out her inadequacies and the real mother who just didn’t care from the start.

She shook that negative thoughts off her like dandruff on a black Melton coat and he kissed her hand and gestured her to sit. They lay there in each others arms with the cat at their feet watching a movie without any sound, the remote not found.

He kissed her again, on the tip of her nose and she closed her eyes to receive it.

When she opened her eyes he was gone and the purring kitten was at her feet.

His death was sudden and they said almost painless.

When he rushed in front of a car to save her Peanut Butter.

I am moody. I did not plan to be moody this weekend, but moodiness seems to brood when people piss me off. I really did no mean to be moody this weekend. After a difficult week wrt work and other personal dilemmas I planned on just being me this weekend and enjoying the bliss of no demands and responsibility.

On a brighter note, yesterday I went to Kebaab Maal in Sea Point and I must say irrespective of the fact that for the three hours we were seated in the Indian restaurant playing very old Bollywood music no one else had entered or ordered, the butter chicken we ordered was delicious. Sumaya and I were both impressed. The Garlic Naan was crispy without being tough, soft and deliciously garlicky. The stuffed naan was also ok, although I think stuff puraatas are a lot more delicious.

The mango lassi was ok ish, I Think Bibis makes it better, its lighter and sweeter almost like a mango milkshake. But that Butter chicken pretty much won me over, and I would rather go there that to Bukhara albeit Bukhara may look prettier on the outside, Kebaab Mahals Butter chicken made me feel pretty on the inside.

I have always been a big fan of the Sound Of Music and was delighted when I managed to pick up a DVD copy with a special edition Additional DVD for a pretty bargain on one of my many trips to MUSICA with B.

I always wondered how the children of Captain Von Trap have grown up and wondered what they are doing now. Surprisingly few of them are actors today, it was very interesting to see them grown up.

I FINALLY got my Bridgette Jones both 1 and 2 on DVD as well picking it up yet at another bargain at Musica with B again.

Bridgette is absolutely ridiculous. I most certainly wont say I want to be like her, but its so much fun to se all the things she gets up to. The crazy things I think but would never have the guts to do, she would do.

And Mark Darcy, well he is what I call the ideal man. He is worth giving up your last Rolo for.

I got my pride and prejudice DVD last month also, FINALLY, the original one with my Collin Firth and am seriously contemplating getting the Jane Austin box with my Hugh Grant. I am a huge Jane Austin fan although I have not read all her books yet.

Feeling a bit better now, my aunt is coming to visit me this afternoon and am sort of excited for that.

Oh I got a delicious dress yesterday from THE SPACE in Cavendish, it’s a Coleen Eitzen. I am not per sey a fashion victim, hell not at all! I like clothes that are different, and classy. This dress I got is made of cotton a stiff material, with a swirling pouncy bottom till my knee, and has a collar with brown piping. Very 60s ish I guess, I need to get a pair of smart kick ass heels which I am going to try and get from Nine West or some other snazzy store. A smart closed pointy heel. Then just some accessories and I will be done! Eid shopping can be a killer esp when its so close to XMAS.

Got the cutest XMAs cards, gold ones with reindeers and snowmen. AAh Xmas makes me feel all festive. Going to my aunts to celebrate Xmas with gifts and a tree. I need to get some gifts still. I was thinking, those coconut ice in little shortbread cups will look rather festive hey.

Maybe I should make a few of that.

I usually find solace in baking.

Although Eid time will come soon and then it’s nothing to do with solace but mere survival with my MUM!

Last year this Eid I was with Farha. Time sure has passed ever so quickly.

How could an entire year have passed already?

I find solace in writing too. Even if it is just a rant and rave like this one.

What is Sexier than this?

SEXY?

Is it a very short skirt with an even larger hem with a belt that actually covers the length of the skirt? IS it boobs popping out of bra that hardly fits and a brain the size of a pea or is it a bowl of braised peas in a bit of butter and onion just the way you remember it when your mom cooked a big Sunday lunch?

IS it sexy when like magic you change butter and sugar into a creamy icing with a dash of coco delicatly draped like a satin sheet over a soft spongey chocolate round cake light and tastey or heavy and rich with caramel and cream?

What about a steamy hot pot of butter chicken, seductively aromatic, a rich deep orange colour, a thick spreadable texture that softly coats basmati rice in its strong and erotic flavours teasing your tastebuds and torturing your nose with desire?

So what do you think is sexy?

alive

My feet hurt cause these heels are painful and unkind inventions that make me taller and hence slimmer and ever so sexy.

For a month I have been working at THE COMPANY and I need to pinch myself to believe that tomorrow is the 1^st December.

A HAPPPPYYYY BIRTHDAY to my cousin Sadiqa who turns 21 yet again!!

It makes me realize that one hardly has time to smell the flowers. We have a frangipani tree in our garden and honest to god as much as I love those pretty flowers I do not know if they have bloomed as yet. I have not looked at them. They are my favorite flowers and no I cannot buy them at Woolies as you can with almost every other conceivable item.

They tiny are white with this yellow centre but they smell like an expensive perfume, sweet and feminine, and that something extra that just makes dreams come true.

I am alive and happy none the less.

Had a really super weekend that passed and tomorrow I go watch the New Bond movie. Oh yeah baby!

I hope tomorrow I don’t forget to smell the frangipanis…

new

I sat there daunted by the gleaming silver tables. The girls looked intimidating and unfriendly. I wore my new suit and felt stiff and awkward.

In my discomfort zone I get nauseous for a familiar face, an sms from HIM comforfts me some what.

I Know that I was going to be ok before I even got here.

Five days have passed by too quickly, and the learning curve is nearly perpendicular to the axis which I thought I would never get to.

Shiny things only shine from certain angles, and when you look at it from a different perspective its almost a different picture altogether.

My first week at my new work is going just fineJ

Movie Review DON

Sharukh khan seriously has a face for every occasion, and with mere changes of expressions can transform from being a dilly-silly village boy to DON, a mafia type guy who will even get Mr Bond in a Tizz!

Not that I would have voluntarily have gone to watch the movie especially at its location, Canal Walk the craziest place to be the weekend before Eid.

So under duress I am dragged there. The cinema seating is nice and spacious and the cinema bigger than usual.

The opening scene I cannot even remember but I am betting it was with Sharukh doing something that yet again my good friend Bond would have done.

Anyhow I remember when Kareeena makes her brief appearance, dancing provocatively in a club. Now what Indian movies short fall on is realistic story lines, but that is easily compensated by the glitz and glamour.

So Mizz Kapoor is literally throwing herself at Don (Sharukh) when she has to make a phone call to her aunty who she lives with who is worried of her?? I mean how stupid that is, anyhow she really is calling a police man who would like to catch Don. You see Don killed Kareena’s fiancé so she is acting in revenge, for her poor lover.

Rest assured Don beheads her in a rather clever move, making the incompetent police yet again look like idiots. Why don’t they get secret agents like Bond I keep asking myself?

Enter Priyanka Chopra doing a bit of Kung Fu in some kind of gym room showing off a very toned and worked out body with her hair like she walked out of a salon and make up as if she was going to be a clown for my six year old cousins birthday party.

As can be predicted, Chopra is Kareena’s fiancés sister and she seeks revenge on Don for her brother and his fiancés death.

Eventually Donn screws up in a race and the police officer mentioned gets hold of him. He decides to get another guy who looks exactly like Donn to replace the real Donn and that is where the movie gets funnier and interesting.

The first half is boring, over the top and on more than one occasion I closed my eyes (sleep deprivation creeps in however)

The second half gets you guessing and I sat upright and never closed my eyes once, well to blink of course!

The end, is different and unexpected.

Of course there are super phony lines especially at the end when the girl confesses to Don on his almost deathbed the, “I love you” line. .

But nearly four hours after walking into the cinema, I leave, Canal walk busier than ever , get home at past five and count the minutes till bhuka timeJ

6/10 and that is me being kind

F A I T H F U L

In front of God these vows are said

To be forever yours till either of us is dead

I am a person on my own

But next to you I sit on my thrown

We are not one, but from one bread we eat

No races we run no one to beat

We help each other with what needs to be done

And never forgetting we are not one

Cause death will come and then we must be strong

But for now and seven lives after to each other we belong

We drink from one cup and the water is blessed

With each others hearts and heads we will never mess

We wont hurt each other, but fights will come

Silly moments, where we both will be dumb

We both know this but its part of this pact

Marriage is hard, it’s a known, unbeatable fact

With joys and sorrows and all imbetween

And tradition, family and Islam as our deen

I hereby take you as my man

And by your side I promise to stand

And be your wife till death do us part

I hereby give you my whole heart

Respect it well and treat it right

With kindness and delicacy with no spite

Understand and challenge it, it comes with a brain

And when it weeps help to take away the pain

And when it needs a shoulder to cry

Comfort it dearly and don’t ask why

And if you can promise to do all of this

I can promise you darling eternal bliss

U N F A I T H F U L

I give him a long stare, I breath deeply as he takes my hand in his and whispers my name in my hair. He holds me close and strokes my hand with soft kisses on my forehead.

I look at him and he kisses me and whispers, “I love you”

“I love you too” I respond and my eyes goes watery as I think of the night before.

He ushers me into his car and we leave his flat and head off to the movies, I am quiet all along the drive, contrasting very much from my constant verbal diarrhea. He parks the car in the basement and we head off to the movies as we have done a thousand times before. He buys a popcorn and shakes on some cheese and chives flavoring and balances a giant Coke in his free hand.

We get comfy in uncomfortable cinema seats, he holds my hand and asks if I am ok, I Lie and say I am fine.

But I am not really, I am feeling guilty and trapped.

This perfection we have, ought to be enough, but it just doesn’t suffice and somewhere between being inlove and today I fell out of love with him.

It happened a while ago but the exact date I cannot decipher, the emptiness replaced the love that resided in my heart. I know he still loves me. I see it in his eyes, and I wonder if he can see in my eyes that I no longer love him. I suspect he does, cause he holds my hand with a tight grasp, anticipating I m going to leave him.

As the movie progresses he occasionally kisses my forehead and holds me tight.

I don’t touch the popcorn.

Midway through the movie I feel nauseous and run to the bathroom.

I vomit.

I don’t have much in my stomach but for three days in a row I have been waking up and vomiting.

He runs after me and into the cubicle I am crawling in. He pats my back and hands me a piece of hard paper, the kind you wipe your hands with not your mouth with.

He isn’t that stupid, he knows and because we never ever did it he knows it’s not his.

And even through all that he holds my smelly hand and we walk to his car.

We sit silently all the way till he gets to my place.

He leans forward and kisses my forehead.

I hug him tight.

The emptiness dimmers and I remember why I love him so.

I get out of the car relived, feeling somewhat safer and a bright light blinds me.

I wake u in a hospital bed, and a doctor standing next to me with my mother.

I barely make out what they are saying but I decipher the doctor with a heavy Durban accent saying, “She lost the baby” and I remember her astonished look, perplexed and puzzled.

They realize I am conscious and the doctor urges me to take it easy but I need to explain.

“He’s dead now.” She tells me.

I didn’t want the baby anyhow, it would have complicated life and mine was complicated enough. But having him with me I realized that I was stupid to have doubted this love he has for us, more so stupid for not realizing what a great thing it was that we had, that he and I were meant to be. That this was my Leo and I was his Kate, and then it hit me, it was way too early to know whether the baby was a girl or boy and the he my mother was speaking of wasn’t the he I had assumed it to be.

The end