Im growing up..... SIKE!

I haven't done a blog in quite some time.... Neglecting a blog is like what number ONE on the blogging not to do list?  Naughty Punky!

So, I have had a rather "chilled weekend" - I am saving myself for Oppikoppi which is closer than I thought.  Note to self: Must go to gym. Must buy booze. Must makes lists. Must service car.  Must find a tent and or a willing gentleman who doesn't hog the blankets. 

In my attempt to be "chilled" I did the following this weekend:

Friday:

Went to a grown up dinner party (or stew night cos well you know how cold Johannesburg has been - and who wants to braai outside?):  Said stew night when first suggested was agreed to hesitantly but I'm glad I went, I got to meet new people and get to know old friends better.  The stew wasn't good, but it was a god effort and the conversation and laughs around the dinner table made up for it.  Note to self:  Lay  off the wine Punky.  Headache from Hell.

Saturday:

Movie night in with the Starfish.  Watched the 8o'clock movie on DSTV.  Did face masks.  Gossiped and found out what was number one on the Indie Charts on VH1 (P.S I refuse to watch VH1 I am STILL too young to be there target demographic - VH1 was a choice of one of the starfish)

Sunday:

I was having the most lazy or lazy days.... I woke up, looked at the clock it said 10 so NATURALLY I rolled over and went back to bed, when I next woke up it was 12.45. *shocked face* So in fear of being paralyzed from being in bed for too long, I decided to go to Monte with Crippled Starfish (who just had pins taken out of her broken leg) to watch Bridesmaids.  BRILLIANT movie! I laughed the WHOLE way through and didn't loose concentration once (Which is amazing considering I have the concentration of a 5yr old with ADHD).  I suggest you all get off your cute butts and head to your local cinema right meow to go and watch it if you are keen for a few laughs.  

Braai Days

There are few things more precious than family and friends – before you think I am going to go and get all sentimental on you, if is even better when friends and family join you for a day of drinking cleverly disguised as a braai or barbeque (depending on where you are from in the world) – Good food, booze on tap and gossip and laughs all round. Is this not the most perfect way to spend a Sunday?

I always worry about organising an “event” or “get together” – I blame my second term of Grade 1 when I planned to over throw the Grade 2’s who were controlling the Jungle Gym.  Nothing worse than thinking you have 25 5yr olds standing behind you as you march over to face the BIGGEST Grade 2’s the world has ever seen only to turn around and realise “Yup, they didn’t follow “ and “You’re going to die” I thus have never organised a “get together”.  The “Bail out” of 1993 shall forever haunt me.  Punky Fun Fact #1 – I am petrified of Jungle Gyms. 

I mean I organise things, in that I suggest the idea and then make someone else think it was their own idea and they then implement my suggested idea thinking it was their own.  It’s a win-win situation really.  I am a master manipulator when it comes to this. First you have to “Plant the idea”.  It goes something like this:

Punky to Starfish: I haven’t been to a braai in ages, do people still braai?

Starfish: I dunno, I haven’t been to one in ages

Punky:  I think its cos people don’t braai anymore except on like “National Braai Day”

Starfish: Maybe I should have a braai?

Punky: Yes. Yes, you should *evil laugh*

Did you see what just happened there?  Yes. I’m brilliant.  I know. 

So I manipulated my sibling unit into throwing a Lil’ Braai thing – just casual you know.  Few  friends.  No strippers. Casual. 

Got Meat?

You know what is great about not throwing a braai that you actually got someone to throw? There is no stress.  No worrying that the potato salad isn’t going to be just right, no worrying if there are enough chairs, that the weather is going to play along and that there will be enough parking, no worrying that Starfish 3 hooked up with Starfish 5’s boyfriend 4yrs ago and they still aren’t talking and you have mistakenly invited them both (You laugh – this is a SERIOUS problem but the Girl Code is for a WHOLE new blog altogether).  All Punky has to do is make sure of is that there is music to satisfy everyone’s taste (Problematic as I seem to be the ONLY Zimbabwean who listens to copious amounts of Dead Metal and Rock and I do not think any of my Starfish got the memo about how cool guitars are and the bands that use them to make music), however I have made a playlist on iTunes called “Music for the Masses” and it seems to have gone down quite a treat.  So the braai I wanted to be thrown is someone else’s responsibility and all I have to worry about is that should there be any awkward silences between Starfish 3 & 5 there is adequate background music to fill the black hole.   Like I said before, Win-Win Situation. 

Now I don’t know how I came to know these beautiful creatures I get to call my Starfish but know them I do and crazy do they get. 

Small get together and all in all the following food and beverages were bought and for the most part consumed among 12 people:

3 kg’s of Steak

1kg of Chicken pieces

1 large pot of Sadza or “Pap” for the Non-Zimbabweans

5 packets of rolls

1 large bowl of Salad

1 large bowl of potato salad

1 large bowl of 3 bean salad

Then the good stuff:

6 six packs of Savannah dry

3 six packs of Savannah light

1 crate of Castle Lager

4 bottles of wine

5 six packs of Amstel Lager

and

2 six packs of Storm

I must admit, I am shocked at how little we have for left over’s for the rest of the week – Looks like I’m going to have to re-stock my bar and cellar and look forward to the next braai some else decides to throw.  I. Can. Not. Wait.

What to do next Sunday?  Know what I haven’t done in a while?  Had a picnic, do people still picnic? *Hint Hint* 

Johannesburg to Harare

Any drive over 2 hours is never pleasant.  Maybe if I drove a Ferrari or an Aston Martin driving long distances would be a pleasure, I don’t know?  (If anyone wants to lend me, or give me a Ferrari or Aston Martin now would be the time to step up, just saying).

 Punky gets car sick. I have tried ALL the wives tales and hard drugs to try and fix this but the fact of the matter is no amount of sitting on newspaper to rubbing the pressure points on my wrist to popping pills will or has worked, however I am always willing to try new ones so if you have any motion sickness remedies, comment away or tweet at me and I’ll be the dummy who tries them out and lets you know how it goes.  That being said if I am not driving then my whole trip is a blur of nausea and trying to concentrate on not blowing chucks all over whoever is driving. 

My big sister is moving back to Zimbabwe from Cape Town we shall call her Punky Snr.  So my Dad drove down to Johannesburg from Zimbabwe to escort my sister and I home encase my sisters car broke down or anything on the drive home.  Little did we know the drive was the least of our problems – Beitbridge Boarder Post was!

Now I love my sister, she is my favourite person on the planet, but good gawd, i HATE her music taste.  She has to have been reincarnated , she has to the be only 26yr old I know who has EVERY Kenny Rogers Album and actually listens to country music not just the more commercial  likes of Taylor Swift, she listens to ALL of it.  1hr in and we have already had a fight over the choice of music.  I spent 3 hours the night before while EVERYONE was sleeping to compose the most AMAZING compilation of music to make our drive into the greatest road trip ever. I take music VERY seriously!  I had made sure there was a perfect mix of all our music preferences it went from Black Eyed Peas to John Mayer to Rise Against to 30 Seconds to Mars etc etc it was spectacular.  Punky was proud of her mix.  I really was!  3 songs in Punky Snr “WTF is this music, it’s so heavy I hope we aren’t listening to this the whole trip, when can I put MY music on”.  We were listening to 30 Seconds to Mars.  Heavy? Really? REALLY! I will not be listening to Kenny Rogers for the next 6 hours.  However I won and by the time I got to the Zimbabwe when my sisters took over control of the radio i changed cars and carried on jamming – I will NOT risk my ears bleeding.

So the Zimbabwe side of the Beitbridge boarder is a Pig Fest.  You literally arrive and your car gets swamped by agents who can to quote “Get you through immigration no problem boss, we do it quick quick”.  It is so bad that you actually start feeling scared.  There must have been around 15 men surrounding each of our cars trying to shove blue immigration forms into our faces.  However the queue to get into immigration is about 1km along so we thought “Hey we’ll pay more and get it done quickly without having to stand in the queue”.  How naive we were, they totally hit the mother load when they saw us coming.  We got conned, totally and utterly conned.  The guy disappeared with the roughly the equivalent of R5000 of our money to pay to get clearance etc.  Livid!  My parental unit nearly has a fit he was so angry and threatened everyone and anyone until the slimy little twit slithered out of the dark room, threw our cash at us and ran away faster than Usain Bolt with my father chasing after him.   Viva Dad Viva!

And that was our welcome to Zimbabwe.  God.  Nothing like being home huh?  5 minutes in the country and someone has already asked for a bribe and tried to steal for us.  You all really MUST come on holiday its fantastic.  Note the sarcasm

Human Rights Day

There are 285 days remaining until the end of the year (and those Christmas parties I KNOW you all love) it also happens to be Human Rights Day in South Africa making this lovely day of March the 21st a public holiday, meaning NO WORK,  a SHORT WEEK AND A LONG WEEKEND! Now that's Ayoba! 

It is you HUMAN right South Africa to enjoy today, be as lazy as physically possible, most of the country today will either be catching up on all those PVR'd series from the previous week or watching rugby (if there is any on - I wouldn't know Punky doesn't believe in contact sports.)

I spent my public holiday watching True Blood - If there are vampires living amongst us I swear I am going into the slaying business, or you know I'll become a vampire blood harvester.  Yes, I am watching too much True Blood.

So to celebrate Human Rights Day Punky and one of her Starfish friends decided to go back to our oceanic roots and went for sushi.  Now let me inform you that I have NOT eaten all day and Punky needs her protein boet.  So we violated the Sushi buffet at Tataki its amazing and FULL of beautiful people and even more beautiful Asian - I pretty sure the one waiter is Will Yun Lee's long lost twin brother (See below for photographic evidence of Will Yun Lee)

Now regardless of your personal preference (Personally I like my men like my sugar: White and Sweet) - This guy is a HUNK!  And yes, his look-a-like makes sushi at Tataki Sushi.   I can appreciate a beautiful man, but a beautiful man who makes amazing sushi is almost too much to handle.  Take a trip ladies great sushi and talent its a win win.  

So after eating too much sushi and drinking a little too much Wine (what is is about sushi and wine just going PERFECTLY together) we stumbled out of the sushi joint into the lovely wet weather that has been hovering over Johannesburg lately.  I can deal with the cold, actually Punky is a fan of the cold, but rain - Punky no like! 

For interest sake today is also:

Harmony Day in Australia

The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (International)

Mothers Day in most of the Arab World 

Truant's Day in Poland (I feel like I need to name my next pet Truant - I should probably Google the meaning of it yes?)

World Down Syndrome Day

And lastly Youth Day in Tunisia

"All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions" - John Locke

Hope you exercised your human rights today! 

Punky Out. 

The Adventure begins...

Welcome to the wonderful world of Punky (Thats me Folks) and my Starfish (the would be the beautiful creatures I call my friends)

I have had previous blogs in the past, but they have sadly been neglected and thus given over to the BRDC (Blog Refuse Disposal Center) to die a sad and lonely unviewed death on the world wide web.

I hope you enjoy the scandalous day-to-day happenings of the what I am lucky enough to call my life

Hold on it’s going to be a bumpy ride…