The After shot!

Isn’t it bloody marvelous?
Sent from my radtastic Blingberry, probably while driving. If I crash while replying to you, I’ll send you my insurance bill, k?

Tis the season for complaining….

Hi everyone!

So I’m completely ready to go on holiday.  Ridiculously ready, in fact.  I’m sitting in my ghost town of an office and am wondering why on earth I didn’t take leave earlier this year.  Clients are quiet, colleagues are MIA and my brains have already left for Durban.

I’ve been so busy lately that when this weekend approached and I noticed that we had THE ENTIRE WEEKEND FREE I did a small little dance in my heart.  It’s really not often enough that we can just sit at home and do nothing.  It’s one of my favourite things.  I really enjoyed it!  Actually, what I mostly did was read Anne Rice.  The first three of her books:

• Interview with a Vampire
• The Vampire Lestat
• Queen of the Damned

But aside from this weekend, what have I been doing lately?

School of Cooking.

Took a bunch of friends with me to Pick n Pay’s School of Cooking at The Good Food Studio in Hurlingham.  There we drank wine, learnt how to make a gourmet 3-course entertaining meal and had lots of fun (and the course is really easy, but clever too!).  I strongly recommend you all do this at least once in your life time.  It’s the perfect night out with friends, and so worth your money.  Jon and I are totally going back again in January to do the sushi course.  So awesome!

Jon, who is usually wary of the kitchen, had the most fun!

Anglug having fun with the knives...

Christmas shopping.

Jon and I started on Saturday and eventually gave up to go home in order to receive a delivery of our new office chair and artwork (Yay! Thanks LLB! We love you!).  But on Sunday, we put on our tactical shopping clothes (loose pants, comfy shoes, bright shirt to distract other shoppers with when zoning in on the last item of the shelf), drew up a list and an agenda (Don’t judge me, it’s Jon’s OCD, not mine!) of where to start and off we went.  Everyone on our list was bought for within an hour and a half.  Impressive, no?

Wrapped Christmas presents.

With bows and ties and ribbons and everything.  It’s one of my favourite things about this time of year – making gifts look beautiful.

That, my friends, is how I roll

Painted dressing table.

It’s been standing in our dining room for over two months just waiting to be refurbished.  So I finally did it on Saturday afternoon.  And just as I started, it began to downpour a torrential rain like I haven’t seen in months.  Sigh.

The Before shot.

Bugger.  Forgot the after shot!  Will post soon.

Visited doctors.

This requires a blog post all of its own.  Suffice it to say: I do not want to see doctors for a very long time.  Bottom line: We still don’t know what’s wrong with me, but we do know it’s not my kidneys.  Whatever man, I feel better now so bring on the holidays!

Been astounded by Gloria.

This woman never ceases to amaze me with her absurdity.  The other day I opened the pantry only to find that the tupperware had completely been rearranged and scattered into different places on the shelves.  The area where they had all been stacked was completely empty and barren.  I, confused and alone in the world, asked her politely to please put the tupperware back to the way it was.  She looked at me, looked at the pantry, looked back at me again, clicked her tongue and shook her head and said,

“Yes, who did this thing, put it all over?  I will fix it, but who did this thing I don’t know marra it wasn’t me!”

I double checked with Jon that he didn’t do it (he didn’t), wracked my brains to make sure I didn’t do it (I didn’t) and basically crawled into a little ball on the floor and rocked myself against the cupboard, wishing it was a padded cell.

Anyway, this Christmas will be the first where I’ll not be seeing my step-siblings Cam and Jarry.  Sob.  It’s a big change, but what with us kids all having parents divorced, we’ve all got at least two homes to split ourselves over at Christmas time.  Trying to see each other now that my mom and Kev have separated will just make it three homes to visit and that makes it difficult for us all.  The good news is that this year I get to see my Dad and Trace and Ash!  First time they’re in SA for Christmas and not Australia!

Send luck to my boyfriend*, people, he will be getting to know mine father this December!

*Not ‘my Jew’.  I’m not allowed to call him that anymore.  Apparently people introducing themselves and then following up with “Oh you’re Shebee’s Jew!” is not conducive to his identity.

Jon is like, totally romantic and stuff.

Jon is totally, like, romantic and stuff.

SMH!

On bacteria in my kidney…

So Cath and I joke often about her passing on her dodgy kidney to me.  Well, to me it’s no joke okay?  Having experienced no less than 4 (FUCKING FOUR!) kidney infections since March this year, I finally dec- I’m lying.  Jon got pissed off enough with me to actually do something about it.  So I distracted him long enough this weekend (I don’t think it worked, every time I winced, gasped or sighed I could hear the Jew’s eyeballs rolling in his head.  NO SYMPATHY to be had for his stubborn girlfriend who refused to see a doctor) to last until this morning.

Conrad, we’ll call him Connie, the doc I see when things usually get very bad, basically called me a dumbass for waiting this long to see him again.  When he gently caressed my swollen abdomen and I managed to not kick him in the groin in reaction, he threw his hands up, looked at me over his glasses and told me that if I don’t actually start taking this seriously, I may as well kiss my kidneys goodbye and book a reservation with the big dude in the sky.

Really?  I had no idea kidneys were so important!  Okay, so I did, but I’ve adopted (and perfected!) the mentality that if I ignore something for long enough it usually goes away.  Except Kennith, my dodgy kidney.  He keeps coming back, progressively worse each time.  This round, he’s got some baterial friends who’ve taken up residence and are pulling the squatters right in my right kidney.  Fuckers.

Anyway, so Connie pulled a few strings and has got me in for an appointment with a urologist this Friday (this in itself is apparently amazing, as he warned me that usually it’s a 6month waiting list.  WTF?!  People actually wait that long? What wussies!) to do a bit of a scanning of my insides and most probably book me in for a lazer operation thinger.

So ja.  My worst nightmare is coming true – I kinda avoid hospitals and funeral parlours as much as possible but I suppose that in this case I’d rather opt for the former rather than the latter.

In the mean time, some of my blood and urine has been sent away for testing, and I’ll find out tomorrow if I’m a radio active spiderpig with a super kidney full of death and gloom.

I’ll keep you guys informed as soon as I find out anything new.

Yours in kidney bacterial infections,

SheBee

x

Delurking delurkers

So I just looked at Google Analytics for the first time in about 6 months.  Wow, even though I don’t blog all that often anymore there are actually more than 2 people who click on this blog still, who woulda thunk it?

So I know some people don’t like to comment for their own reasons, but I’m really interested to see who is reading about my life.  Would you mind dropping a line to say hi and that you were here?

Please please pretty please?

I am SOOOO curious.

So proud of my friend Ray!

The Story Behind the “Ode to the Silver Bullet”:

After embarking on a 5 week tour of Canada, the Loneraynger found his way around the beautiful western coast with his tour manager Damon, and his trusty cameraman Fausto. Damon had found a beautiful form of transport in a 1990 GMC Safari, which came loaded with cotton seats, armrests and oil stains. It was easy to fall in love with the beast, and even more so when on the second day of the tour it was tagged by a professional graffitti artist. That day, the Silver Bullet was born, and every day after that that it served the Loneraynger crew unwaveringly, drawing the attention of young- females and old motorheads alike. That was until, one warm Canadian morning, the Van met it’s fate on the highway from Whistler back to Vancouver. Up a stretch of steep tarmac, the beast caught on fire, and in no time was wrapped in ball of flames. After a quick attempt to salvage some valuables, Damon had to abandon the Bullet.

The fire had done its evil deed, leaving nothing but a shredded and devoured carcass of what glory once was; only sparse chips of an artwork left on the side of the highways.

Ray muses, “We lost almost everything in that van; $5000 worth of music equipment for the tour, a camera, a tripod, cellphones, clothes, tent, and a pair of extremely fine boxers. Despite the material possessions, it was the spirit of the van and it’s endearing quirks which we had fallen in love with, it was the embodiment of youth taking to the road and moving music for ears to hear.”

Leaving not much hope for the Loneraynger and his crew, the tour came to a screeching halt. What’s a one-man band without his steed? But the spirit of the Silver Bullet held strong.

Link of Van Burning Story:                 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhMM5U2g9Xw

“We realized this van was our thread, our 4-stitch seam, it was what held us together and was in fact the sole reason we met Endless (Mike Tsigonias)”

Before the incident, the crew had been driving around small town Osoyoos, trying to find the venue for his next gig, when they pulled over randomly to ask for directions. It turned out they had asked Mike, a local aspiring rapper who instantly made a comment about the ‘sick paintjob’ of the van. Ray told him he was a beatboxer from South Africa, and Mike made him get out the van. Right there and then not a minute after they had met, they performed on the street, making plans to perform impromptu later that night at the gig. The connection was made.

Link of Ray meeting Mike:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zthliSbqasM

Back in Vancouver with no wheels and a couple days left in Canada, frustrated with their situation it become clear that they needed to pay tribute to the beloved Bullet, and so the idea for “Ode to the Silver Bullet” was born. The tribute needed to convey everything that was meaningful to the Voxbox Sessions tour.

At the time, Ray had performed some gigs with Colin Bullock in Vancouver, an Australian musician working in Canada who was the obvious choice to get on board. In some perfect whirlwind of creativity and unbelievable time and money constraints, they managed to write, record the song from scratch and film the music video in only 3 days. Mike was called in to do a rap, and he had to catch an 8 hour bus ride into Vancouver to do his bit. He had not heard the song yet. He arrived at 4pm, listened to the track, wrote his rhymes in a half hour, recorded his take in half hour, at which point we quickly jetted off in a taxi to downtown Vancouver to an alley Fausto had found. Fighting with time and losing light Fausto filmed Endless in just one hour; Mike having to hide a speaker in his hat to so he could listen to the track and remind himself of his just-recorded raps. He did, however, get flashed by an beautiful female onlooker.

For the second chorus scene shared with Ray and Colin, they had only had an hour left before had to leave for a tour to Whistler. In a flash of coincidence, Fausto remembered this abandoned house he had stumbled across when he got lost riding a bike around Vancouver. Again, time was short but they nailed it together.

The entire experience seemed to come together by tooth and nail, but it came together perfectly, every piece of the puzzle falling into place in an insane three days just before the LoneRaynger and his cameraman left Canadian shores.

Edited and mastered once back in SA, this collaboration is proof of the creative process being an enigma one cannot fully explain, but a beautiful one indeed and the result speaks for itself. No money, no time, no resources equaling the “Ode to the Silver Bullet”

INFORMATION AND LINKS:

Ray Connell is a beatboxer and musician who goes by LoneRaynger, he embarked in a first-of-its-kind in South Africa transmedia storytelling project called the Voxbox sessions, powered and sponsored by Aqua Online

http://www.loneraynger.co.za/

http://www.facebook.com/loneraynger

http://www.twitter.com/loneraynger

http://www.soundcloud.com/loneraynger

http://www.flickr.com/photos/loneraynger

Colin Bullock is an independent Australian singer and songwriter who performs full-time around British Columbia and has released two albums, his latest “As young as we are” about to release.

http://www.colinbullock.com.au

http://www.myspace.com/colinbullocktunes

http://www.twitter.com/colinbullock

http://www.youtube.com/colinbullock

Mike Tsigonias aka Endless is a young white rapper hailing from the small town of Osoyoos in Canada. He is a creative force to be reckoned with, currently working on his debut album.

Annual wrap up…

Every December I do a wrap up of the experiences I’ve had during that year.  You can view previous posts here, here and here.

I have to admit, I think this is the first December that I am

a) employed full time

b) not emo

It’s a good feeling.

2010 was a year of growth for me.  Maturation, much like gouda cheese, I get better at life with age.

I’m in a stable relationship (well, as stable as a Jew and a Sheena can be), I budget every month, I do monthly reports, I pay tax, I have medical aid, I water my flower (memo to self: water the effing orchid, it’s been two weeks!), I have taken on DIY projects at home and I’m addicted to BBC Lifestyle channel.  If that’s not grown up, I don’t know what is.

This year has also been a challenging one.  Never have I used my brain so often, worked so hard, pushed my imagination or spent quite as much time in front of my computer.

But also, this year has been a tough year for friendships, new and old.  That said, I’m very grateful for the friends in my life.  They know who they are.

All in all, would I change anything I’ve experienced this year?  Probably not.

But I look forward to going into the next one a lot more sure of myself, and determined to ensure that I get enough rest in between all the crazy.

Joburg was the best move I could’ve made.  I’m happy.  I’m getting to know this new me, and I’m getting used to it.

Things I love right now.

1. My new word that I just made up: Horribad
2. Not being in labour.  It’s awesome.
3. Christmas time.  I’m already in Christmas Fever.  In fact, I’ve already thrown a Christmas party at home and attended two others!
4. New peep-toe gladiator shoes in camel
5. Steri Stumpie coffee flavoured milk (omg, try it out!)
6. Smallville – am rewatching from the beginning.
7. Enya.  The singer check who sails away repeatedly
8. December.  Can you believe it’s the end of 2010 already?
9. Amazon.com they’re sending me a new Kindle.  For free!
10. I finally found the perfect grey nail polish!  Doesn’t matter that grey is no longer the season colour, I have it!
11. Harry Potter 7 part 1 of 2 – gonna see it tonight!  Woo!
12. Bangles.  I have a million and ten on right now, look: