Jacaranda Sisters with Blisters walk - 24th November 2012

On a rainy November morning, two over excitable people leapt out of bed and prepared for the annual JACARANDA SISTERS WITH BLISTERS walk! Woohoo!!!

This was our third year and no silly soaking rain was going to dampen our enthusiasm!

This is probably more make up then I've worn the entire year! 

I must admit Bren stole the day with his Joker inspired get up! Dude was frikkin' creepy! 

Oh Mr B, how terribly unlady-like a driver you are!

 Rain rain rain! But still, the turn-out was pretty good and finding parking required some creative thinking!

 Some folk maybe got too creative?

 There were many men in skirts! And check those shoes! Foxy!!

Um.......no..........

 I was making some new friends!

 So was Bren....

 Milling at the start all moist and muddy and keen! Lets get walking people!

 After the breakup with Mickey, Mini really let herself go...

 What would a fun walk be without at least one fundamental group of fanatics? Curiously enough I never saw anyone head that way? Maybe best to keep it to Church bakes sales hmmm?

Everyone had a ball! From men in skirts to their little dogs too!
Now we have to wait a whole year for the next one? Poop!
Oh! Almost stood in some!

It was so much fun!!! 

The Fight against Sebastian Cyst

Once upon a time there was a Sebaceous Cyst, who was born on Jo's jaw down by her ear. He came to be known as Sebastian and he was evil!

Oh mostly Sebastian just lurked about and you never knew he was there. He'd sit plotting and planning a comeback, popping up now and then to cause Jo grief and then disappearing, pretending to have left. 

But one day he decided to make a grab at Face Domination and became all red and inflamed  With the help of the dark, uncontrollable powers of Infection, he brought forth mighty eruptions and powerful pain!! Lost in power, Sebastian went mad.

Jo was the understanding sort, but Sebastian's insanity was a canker that had to be cut out before he became too much of a destructive force! Jo needed help!

So one day she went to the magical land of Medi-cross clinic. Here she consulted the Wise Doctor Wizard who gave her magic muti to calm the raging Sebastian and told her to come back in a week's time for him to see how well his administrations had worked.

Oh but Sebastian was strong! He was having non of it and he fought the good white magic tooth and nail (or would if he'd had any teeth or nails - Jo was rather glad he didn't).

So back to the magical kingdom flew Jo where she was escorted into another Wizards secret chambers known only as, "The Theatre!"

Within small Jo saw many wondrous steel and chrome devices! What they all did, she couldn't imagine!

Then she did imagine and shivered a bit...

Jo was laid down on a table, as the wizard (known only as Surgeon), began a battle against the poisonous Sebastian using his powerful Scalpel wand and mighty Mercurochrome potions!

Sebastian raged and fought! He was four years old and had the power of Old Scar Tissue behind him! In went the scalpel, but the Scar Tissue resisted! Back and forth, back and forth, this deadly interplay of magics!

But in the end, Sebastian could not beat the the clever Surgeon and, without a whimper or sigh (again thank goodness!), Sebastian was finally subdued and Surgeon annihilated him by sewing, in the shape of two stitches, a charm into Jo's face to banish him forever!!

There was not much left of pitiful Sebastian...

Jo left feeling very grateful. She asked the mighty Surgeon, "How can I ever repay you?" To which Surgeon replied, "Here is my bill, pay at the counter"

It was a hefty bill, for Surgeons have many needs like new magical equipment and golf on Sundays. Jo paid it though, for she had heard the dungeons of the wizards where far nastier than anything Sebastian could have pulled forth.

Still in the end the foe was conquered, and Jo could show her charm off to the world and rest knowing that good had triumphed evil once again!!

 THE END

Kasparov vs the Company! - September 2012

Garry Kasparov came to Discovery! 

For those who don't know him, Kasparov is a Russian considered by many to be one of the world's greatest Chess players that has ever lived. Now chess to me is hardly an entertaining game. I know it to be a game of strategy and quick thinking, if slow action, but who wants to watch a man play chess?

What if it's against 8 of your co-workers?

All at the same time?

That's right, Discovery got 40 members together to play chess until only 8 players were left, the cream of the cream. Could these 8 players beat the master?

Let the games begin!

All 8 players where on an L shaped stage that allowed Kasparov to move from one table to the next, playing against each person in turn. They got to rest and think strategically, while Kasparov moved continuously from one player to another, with no time for a "sit and think."

We got to watch each choice the Pro made before moving on to his next victim, sorry, rival. Even the most ardent chess hater couldn't help but watch, secretly hoping, maybe we'll get him yet!

Please! Kasparov moved so quickly from table to table that getting a photo of the guy was almost impossible as he was always moving! He was a chess playing machine!

Yeah ok, let me move my pawn, you just lost yours, next player please!

Occasionally he stopped to think. Usually just long enough to come up with another devastatingly clever move that made almost every single player on the stage huff, sigh and hold their hands together in new found religion.

Even Adrian Gore was there to watch the master at work. Keeping an outer cool, I bet inside he was cheering each of his employee's on screaming, "Win you moneky's, win!!"

Eventually Kasparov was down to just one opponent. Would she clear the floor with him?

No such luck! In the end, Kasparov reigned supreme, sending 8 of our very best back home, tail between legs.
It was quite the show! Well done to our guys and congratulations to Mr Kasparov, what can we say other than... W  O  W!!!

Salvation Army Fete - Saturday 25 August 2012

Bright and early, and I do mean EARLY, we headed off to what was advertised as one of the biggest do's in the bargain hunter calendar, the Salvation Army fete! It was... an experience!

 Even though we were there before 8am, the official opening time, the place was, oh, some what crowded...

Perhaps all the police there, and guys with helmets and nifty guns they won't let Jo's hold, seems a tad too much? If you think so then you've obviously not seen the horror of one bargain item and three determined housewives! 

 Jo plots her course of action. Maximum ground coverage is essential! Each tent must be explored! Take no prisoners under 99c!

Sadly there were also a lot of lines to get into the more interesting tents. We decided to give those a skip. The crowd could sense we were not die hard browsers and they're always keen to take out the weakest first! Being battered to death with a stuffed chihuahua - they lose more first timers that way...

Oh my section! A tent full of fat, fluffy toys! Just go on without me!!!

Seriously though, these tents held some weird stuff and, like hungry gazelles, we browsed!

Glow in the dark "golden" Halloween witch! A must have!

 PVC toy dog that looks like a prop for a video that could get daddy into a lot of trouble if mummy ever found out about it!

More sweets than you could shake a stick at! (And trust me after eating half of that candy, you would only ever be able to shake!)

Hey they could be selling actual babies for all I know...

A true blood bargain hunter can spot at least 3 things in this photograph they absolutely HAVE to have!

A life size sarcophagus! I'll get one for my mummy!

 Bren enjoys the spoils of war! Victory is sweet!

And I got something as well! Envy is an ugly emotion.

We had a grand time of it, but my my, aren't I glad we don't do this every weekend? The crowds and lines and people, people, people, would just be too much! 

I wonder if anyone bought the sarcophagus?

Candy Making - aka EPIC FAIL!

Right! Making Nougat, granted I'd never made candy before but how hard can that be? 

Oooooooooooooh boy!!

We found a good looking recipe online, bought all the ingredients and commensed candy-fi-cation!

Below we have a symphony in pots of how something so simple can go so horridly wrong!!

We usually have immense success in the kitchen but this time I was reminded about not getting too cocky with Koch in the kitchen!  :P

1. We added all the sugar, honey and maple syrup to the pot to cook. We put in water to ensure it didn't stick. Below we see the sugar and goodies mixing together in a rather unappetizing looking dish. But we are peppy and thinking, well, lets give it our best shot!

2. Ok, 20 / 30mins into cooking and it's yes, shiny and shimmery, but not much else is happening, hmmmm...

3. Ok ages later and besides a bit of bubbling still not much. And then a lot more bubbling! And more! And then we began to suspect that there was just waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much water in the thing! And what the heck did one recipe need so much sugar for? The scent of fear, like overly warm candy, filled the air...

 4. So if there's too much water add more sugar right? We split the mix, with a quarter into one pot and three quarters into the other. Into the smaller pot we added a ton more sugar. On the plus side things started looking up a bit! The stuff started to thicken and hope bloomed once more in our trampled down hearts!

5. We added the half mix with extra sugar to the egg whites, and hey, things were happening!

 6. We put the last of all the melted sugar in a pot, just cause, and spent the rest of the time cleaning en-sugared pots! A little while later we had a pot full of rock hard candy and no kids to give it to! It really was more of a weapon to bludgeon rhinos to death then something edible!

>Clink! Clink!<

 7. The Nougat came out half soft and squishy and almost too sweet to eat! Ironically it did taste like nougat apparently but it was neither a sauce or a sweet, more like some hideous mutant creature caught between!

8. But fear not, we shall try again! This time a little older and a whole bunch wiser!! So, want to taste test?

Hey! Where are you running off too???

Snow-Burg! 7 August 2012

Into August, the windy month, and lower temperatures are rather the norm, but what a surprise we got today! *Vibrates happily!*

It all started with some pretty low, low temperatures, at least for a South African province, (-1 to 8C) and some rather ominous looking clouds like so:

Creeeeeeeeeeepy!

 And then... The magic! Snow started to fall! First in isolated places, so you were like, "Humph, why did X town / city / destination, get snow and we didn't? I never liked them anyway!" and then suddenly -  right at an outdoors near you - down came the snow!!
Soft flakes, small flakes, delicate flakes but still snow! In Johannesburg!!! You can imagine the excitement?!
I don't think anyone talked about anything else the entire day!

I tried to get a video of the stuff falling but it's not easy on your cellphone. I meant to try again later but was far too busy enjoying natures freakish quirk! It was awfully cold though! I got frosty patches on my ears!

 Mind you in some areas it did snow a tad bit more than others...

 But how could you not just go outside and gape at the wonder of it all? Even adults were being silly, in fact especially adults, and snowballs were thrown and snow men made, and probably rather a few colds and sniffles were picked up as well! But it was all so worth it!

 Not sure the plants knew what to make of their sudden frosting!

By the looks of it, neither did the animals! That's king of the jungle, not winter wonderland!

 It was so pretty! All those tiny ice crystals! I know to a country that gets a lot of snow this stuff is a pain in the everywhere (It really is awfully cold), but to us it was just enchanting!

Sadly in many areas it dried up rather fast. This is Africa after all! Come back snow we miss you!!!

Well... mostly.... *Cuddles heater*