snowgoose

So after 4 years of loyal service, I traded my Bean in last weekend. My bean, in case you’re wondering, was my Corsa Lite 1.4i. The numberplate was SJB which we christened Snowgoose’s Jelly Bean. I also called her The Bubble – and I loved her. Well, I did until recently.

I got my bean in 2005, she was 4 years old at the time, with 24 000km on her. I had sold my 1st car (The Beast, my 1987 Nissan Exa) to get the deposit together and The Bean was the first thing I had ever financed – the first thing I had ever spent over R9000 on! She was very basic – no central locking, no aircon, no power steering – heck – not even a rev counter! But, I loved her. I loved that car fiercely until April this year when some <insert the most obscene word you can think of here> decided not to have brake lights and slam on brakes on the highway – meaning my Bean went straight into the towbar of his ugly orange double cab – crunch! I was pretty frikken upset, you may remember the tweets.

Anyway – so The Bean has not been the same since then, she rattled and pulled in funny directions. This made me decide I needed a trade-up. I had a limited budget so it looked to me like the Toyota Yaris was the best bet. And after only 3 days of searching I found the perfect one: White (I like white cars -OKAY??), top of the range, low mileage (26 000km) and newish (2008 model).

And so on Saturday morning I found myself taking my last drive in the bean, speeding (as I usually do) and singing along to “I love you, always forever” with the radio at top volume. I met my new baby (and the massive instalment that comes with her) and took her home. She has all the bells and whistles and I haven’t stopped playing with them ever since. I’m even getting a personalised numberplate (yes, I KNOW it’s kitsch, I don’t care). Can you guess what it is? … No prizes for getting it: SNWGOOS GP.

So look out for me on JHB roads – most likely driving recklessly, over the speed limit, maybe even tweeting, in my gorgeous new car.

I feel so grown up.

I’ve never been very good when it comes to charity or humanitarian work. I do my bit every now and then on a personal level when I see someone in need but it is really not much. I am not apologetic for this – I recognise the need for angels in our society but I am not that good at actively being one of them. That is why the events of last week surprised and delighted me – as part of assignment for a client, I visited the Nkosi’s Haven Village in the South of Johannesburg to report on them giving 67 minutes of their time to help better humanity and I think it may have lit a spark of something in me.

“OK, so why 67 minutes?’ you ask… well, where the hell have you been this week? It was Nelson Mandela’s 91st birthday on Saturday and also the inaugural “Mandela Day” a day where ordinary citizens were asked to donate just 67 minutes of their lives – to honour the 67 years that this great man spent on humanitarian causes. So what can you do in an hour and 7 minutes? Not much – but I think the point is to use that time to start something bigger.

So, back to my story – we arrived at Nkosi’s Haven Village in a convoy of 4 cars. 5 South African women out to do a little bit for others. The task we were given was to sort out donated clothes, linen and toys into sizes, gender’s and ages. No mean feat considering the mountain of clothes, higher than our heads! Its not a glam job by any means but without it, the Village is unable to distribute the clothes to those who need them.

In our 67 minutes we managed to sort over 12 large bags of clothing out, but this hardly scratched the surface. I have not been able to get that pile of clothing off my mind and I am thinking of getting a few geeks (and non-geeks) together and going through to the Village on a Saturday morning to help finish the job.

Nkosi Johnson did so much for the plight of HIV positive people in his short life and Gail Johnson is taking  his good work to new heights with Nkosi’s Haven & Nkosi’s Haven Village, but they need our help. What are your thoughts? Will you help me? Let me know so I can start organising a volunteer group.

To read more about the village and our time there, visit the Izibongi Blog.

This weekend I was lucky enough to travel to The 2009 Durban July on behalf of a client: South African Tourism.

Recently, Metro FM ran a competition where people could win an all expenses paid 5 day trip to Durban for them and 3 friends. The trip included Shark Diving, Ziplining through the Oribi Gorge and a day at Africa’s Greatest Horse-racing event; The Durban July. We were tasked with recording their experiences and publishing them online on:

• The Celebrate South Africa Blog
• The @ShotLeft twitter stream
• The South African Tourism Flickr stream
• The South African Tourism YouTube channel

Things I learned this weekend:

Durbanites are amazing peeps

Everyone was so friendly and the city has a great, bohemian party vibe. We met some fantastic people and my opinion of the city that was formed in my childhood (Slightly dingy holiday town full of surfers) was seriously challenged. Durban also has loads of fashion designers, from the fledgling ones starting their careers to some of the most respected designers in SA.

The Durban July is not actually about horses

It’s about seeing and being seen in the latest fashions. I saw the blondest hair and the darkest tans I’ve seen in a while. Some of the people looked fantastic – but mostly they just looked plastic. The main race was at 16h30 and the majority of the 56 000 people at Greyville racecourse didn’t even bat an eyelid when the horses thundered down the straight. Some of them didn’t even leave their Marquees!

I did have a good laugh at the girls who started off the day in their insanely high stilettos looking like they just stepped off the catwalk and ended it rather drunk, their make-up smudged and their feet in excruciating pain. As much as it wasn’t exactly my normal scene, I did enjoy all the people-watching and I’m very glad I went.

Kwazulu Natal has some awesome tourist destinations!

I’ve been going to KZN on holiday at least once a year since I was a kid and not once had I ever been to the awesome Aquarium at uShaka Marine World, see the Umzimkulu River Valley on the South Coast or the breath-taking Oribi Gorge. Next time I find myself there, I’m definitely doing the Wild Swing at Oribi Gorge – it’s a King Swing down a 100m drop!! Radness!

So, even though it was a working weekend – I had a great time and learned a lot. Go have a look at our photos, videos (still busy being uploaded) & blog posts to see what we did.