Football Snowball

If, a month ago, someone had told me I’d be neck deep in soccer enthusiasm, cheering on teams and actually having blown a vuvuzela (badly), I’d have wondered if they’d been held underwater too long and suffered irredeemable brain damage!

[[Spooky nutters! We're not like them are we Ursh? Let's do our two man Mexican wave!!]]

But to be fair, the soccer bug was totally unexpected! Sure we were excited for South Africa, host nation and all, Hello, but we’d decided we’d try watch SA games and if we made them - good, and if not, ah well too bad, so sad.

[Japan is our other country; we support them because a country that gives us such fine anime and manga gets it without question!]
(We choose fav teams not based on silly things like how well they play…)

We watched the second South Africa game, SA vs. Uruguay, with Ursh’s parents. It was a late night game and SA lost 3-0 (as every patriotic S-African can tell you in teary voices…) and I think her folks didn’t relish having us come tootling in at odd hours to see bits and pieces of “must see” games. (It’s hard to sleep with two women squeaking excitedly at the foot of the bed, or so I’m told) So they lent us their other TV.
And all hope of a normal life was lost.



But come on, its such fun! We peek on the net to see who’s playing when and then chose a team to support. Often by small things, like we like their attitude, or their manga, or the fact that we don’t know them but hey, they have a spunky vibe. Or we hate them because they got into the tournament through cheating (France), have bad human rights (Ghana) or pick on the teams we do like (Netherlands).

It’s glorious to watch a well played game! Those jocks sure do know how to dance about with a ball! (When they play well that is, some countries play like lost sheep… *cough cough* ENGLAND *cough cough*)

We’ve cheered the underdog, scorned near blind referees, howled joyfully when “our” team scored, screamed at the TV because they can hear us dammit and chatted away half the night, rehashing everything!

And, unlike the average wishy-washy South African fan, we are still supporting SA right to what could well be, the bitter end! (We don’t just support winners, boring! For us, we chose teams and stick with them, come win or embarrassing thrashing! It builds character don’t ya know? ^_^) < - - *feels very self righteous and shiny*

But please note two things:-
1. We’re not rabid fans! (Contrary to popular belief) We don’t know the players names (except Diego Forlan because he’s scary…) and we’d turn down tickets to a world cup game in a heartbeat! (The vuvuzela noise on our delicate ears? And no helpful commentator to tell us what’s going on? Or friendly replay for us to swear at?)


2. When the world cup is over and the TV returned we’ll be back to normal, recuperating from the Soccer Shakes happily. We most certainly won’t be watching ‘Pirates vs Swallows’ or ‘Manchester vs United’ or whatever . The world cup is awesome, the rest, meh.

Yet, for now, it’s exciting, entertaining and captivating! I mean we’re not watching all games, like this one of Australia vs. Ghana… or…Well maybe, okay more then maybe… oh dear I have to go, game to watch and all that, GO OZ!!!!

A trashy story

Today I had to do an important task upon which my future happiness depended! That’s right; I had to take out the trash!! *Dum Dum DUM!*

We have a hole on our plot, which we fill with organic material so as to make a little less trash to be taken away. It invariably gets plastics and papers in it, mostly from our neighbours in the other cottage, who are not quiet as picky about what they throw away in there. Still I like to think it does something for the environment! Or at least the wild rats and guinea fowls, but hey, we all got to eat!

The problem is the hole is quiet a few meters from our cottage. And the weather temp has just plummeted too far below Jo-sweet-loving degrees! It’s in the single digits and decreasing rapidly.
Now I’m sitting here by our little heater, gown on, fuzzy hat and socks at the ready and I’m really comfortable. The idea of taking the trash out is really not all that appealing!

Now put yourself in my shoes for the journey:-

It must be done and so you go to the kitchen, grab the bag of ex-fruity bits, and stand in front of the door, psyching yourself up! It’s like just before you jump into a swimming pool. You know it’s going to be colder then you’d like but you know you have to plunge into it sooner or later. (Though unlike a swimming pool, you don’t get used to the cold air as quickly nor do you get to float around, wondering if there will be watermelon for dessert as you blissfully soaking in the sunlight. There is no sunlight!

You open the door with only a mildly shaking hand, pulling it back fast like a Band-Aid! Those first few seconds are almost okay, the cold doesn’t hit you straight away and it’s not so bad until OMG THAT’S SO COLD!!!

You don’t stand and wait around! Go! Go! Go! While your mind is in shock your body just reacts automatically and you hurtle along to the hole as fast as your rapidly icing toes can carry you! It never seemed so far away as it does tonight! Worse, your hand is wet from being recently washed and it is feeling the cold on a whole new level! The Agony!!

But you get to the hole eventually and swing that bag into it with an unholy mirth that leaves tingles inside your mind! You turn and bolt back to the cottage, going speedily yet carefully over the slippery, grassy hillocks that will only happily take you down just for poops and giggles.

You notice how bitingly fresh the air is, and you notice the beautiful winter sky so completely clear it’s almost mind-blowing, isn’t the moon gorgeous?
Yeah whatever!!!!

You manage to get back to the cottage door without incident. Open it, slip inside so fast the sonic boom can be heard in China, and close the door with a delicious thumping finality. Your hands instinctively reach for the heater and you’re popping your gown back on, as you slide into your chair by the computer, breathing a sigh of bliss no lover could hope to pull from you by other means!

The chore is done! You’re getting warm and life is returning to your neither bits! What a champion you are!!
And so the day closes, the sun sets completely and you’re heroics warm you just that little bit extra, because you know, anyone can be a hero in a traumatic situation, but to rise to the challenge of the ordinary, everyday things that face you, with a smile and a laugh to boot, now that’s real courage!!

^_^

Mystery Dinner Party!

And so the night of the Mystery Dinner finally arrived! Hailed by a Jo and Ursh who’d all but made themselves mad on anticipation and over-excitement!

We tootled off to our friends’ place to meet up and change for the party. It was the first time any of us had seen the other in full costume!!
I was to play a snobbish English bloke whose hobby was stamp collecting, fav band the Beatles and whose secret was that he was already married! Granted not the wildest character of the lot but I think I managed to do him proud! (I did hint to the others that he’d sort of killed off his entire family to get on board the ship, but I think they missed it, which might be good, in hindsight…)

[The name's Dover. Ben Dover! And might I say that Goatee was itchy but it was the face makeup that made me feel like a transvestite oddly enough]

Ursh went as an Italian Playboy (Her card said ‘Sex Addict’ but Playboy sounds so much nicer), and boy oh boy, did she pull it off well! It was actually very creepy, but comforting to know that if she ever needed a fall back career…

[Ursh, or should I say Romeo Gold, looking so dapper, WOW!]

I couldn’t fault anyone else's costume either!

[The lovely Briyani!]

[We had everyone from an Australian pilot with a sexually transmitted disease to a bad mannered French Teacher to a snap-happy Jap! What a mix!]

We all met up and drove to the restaurant! And oh, did they ever pick the perfect place to have a mystery dinner! It was gorgeous!! An old mansion type house, De Kasteel, in Elspark. It had beautiful wooden floors and was absolutely iced with the most interesting antique furniture and décor you could ever hope to surreptitiously play with!
[Alas I only got a pic at night but I think you still get an idea of how magnificent the venue was!]

The dining room was breathtaking and you got a whole feel of sumptuousness from it! Even the food was beautifully prepared! (And enough to feed a small Foreign Legion not just 8 people! [I ate before hand so as not to be the problem child]).
[Shiny!]

Throughout dinner, prompted by the CD, we would do various things to hint at what our characters were like. You couldn’t just blurt it out; you had to be sly, which we did with more or less success!
Everything from chatting about our love lives, to attacking the person on our left (which proved harder then you’d think, especially as mine was Ursh, but she took being called “cheaper then a free condom” rather well I must say….)

We even had to sing a song from our favorite artist and I sang a “stirring”, if warped, version of Yellow Submarine, which really fit the moment, if not the date in history!
(I did find it funny that we’re supposed to be on a ship in 1912 and not one of our artists was born anytime around or before then! But then can you name me 3 artists born before 1912 anyway?)

[The boobs! Originally a prop for Briyani's Naturalist tenancies, pretty much everyone got a go at fondling them and playing with them! Sometimes they looked awfully realistic, don't you think? You can stop staring now...]

[What? I couldn't help trying out a few other people's props! ^_^]

Finally we had to nominate someone who’d acted the best of all of us. This I must say was easy! And the winner turned out to be…. “Andrew” our “Scottish” friend whose foul mouthed antics kept us in stitches most of the night! (Ironically this turned out to be the Birthday girl for whom the party was thrown; she was not too keen to have to take back the rather gaudy “Oscar” that came as the prize…)
[Andrew! Isn't the wig just that added touch? And what a hot blooded Scot he was!]

I was thrilled though that my wee character ended up being the Stow away! It was his 4.5 minutes of fame! What a cad hey?

We also went ghost hunting as one of the women there can apparently see and sense them! Creepily enough she pointed to a corner and said that was where the ghost was and, when the photos of the corner were taken, we found small glowy orbs there! Eek!
Scientific explanation or not, it just fit in perfectly with everything! Thank you kindly, Ms. Ghost!
[I think the spotlight they had over the woman's loo - the men's didn't have one, I checked - was far more spooky then any ghost! Whatever was it for? to make you feel special? Do a number 2 but feel like a number 1?]

We all left feeling very proud of ourselves! It was really wonderful to dress up and be someone who is nothing like what you are in real life! I recommend it to anyone, just hey, remember to invite me too okay?
^_^

World cup Soccer - Who I support and why!

Well it’s that time again! The Soccer World Cup 2010 is all but on our door! So I thought I’d get into the swing of things and post my fav. Teams and why I have them!

Now don’t get me wrong, if I was a gambling woman I’d bet on countries like France, Germany or Brazil! BUT! That’s betting. When it comes to giving whole hearted support, in the face of sometimes overwhelming odds, then I strictly support countries that make me feel something!
So saying my list would go as follows:

1. South Africa – I have to or else I will be maimed by a lot of fellow countrymen. I like my life! Besides if SA can make it to the finals then ANYTHING can happen!!

2. Japan – Man, they’re so small and cute! Honesty, I don’t think they’ll get very far but any country that gives us anime and loves cute stuff is worth support!!! (Hey those are my reasons and I’m sticking with ‘em!)

3. England – Because they’re all nutters and I should have at least one team that has a chance of making it to the finals!

Special mention goes to Argentina for having the sweetest flag I’ve ever seen! And to America who suck at any sport that isn’t played against other Americans!

I still don’t want you guys to win though…

Who are you voting for?

^_^

[[I mean seriously look at this flag! The sun even has a wee face, cuuuuute man! But I don't know diddly about the country so alas, no Jovvian love love support for you!]]

What have you squirreled away?

An upcoming event or activity can be a lot of fun on its own, but sometimes I think people don’t realize how much fun preparing for said event can be!
For us it’s the Mystery Dinner we’ve been invited to next week Saturday! This has caused a small but most enjoyable, merry uproar in our cottage that has kept us busy most of this weekend!

See at this dinner we each have to dress up as a certain character. We’re given cards with clues on as to what this character should be like – Personality / Country of Origin / Secrets…. We even have favorite bands that we have to learn a song from. (You only need a verse or two, I suspect that’s because ears can only take the hashing to death of well known melodies so far).
Each person keeps their identity secret from the other and you try and guess at the function who is what and what they’ve done to whom where and why!

Now Ursh and I share everything, so straight away this, “daring secret” had us all over excited. We’ve been separately plotting, histories and lifestyles and names for these characters to the point where it’s going to be hard to believe they didn’t once exist, somewhere.

Then there’s the best part! Costumes!!


Now you don’t want to go spending a fortune on hiring one, or buying so many things that you can barely walk wearing them all, but it’s still grand to go about a costume shop peeking at everything they have! Masks, props, hats, even fake eyelashes of a thousand varieties!! I could live in a costume shop!! (There was a squirrel costume, complete with furry head, that I saw at the back of the shop, one day, some day, I will wear that!!)

We also scavenged within our wardrobes to find bits and pieces to fit together. (I put gel in my hair for the first time and was horrified at how crunchy it went! It was like having a biscuit nesting on my head)!

When we finally had our gear together we did a small fashion show for Ursh’s folks. They thought our outfits looked very flashy which was a spine tingling achievement on our part! Hooray!!

And now we wait! Aaargh, the wait, the wait! But I’ve packed everything up and out of reach. (Otherwise you get the urge to fiddle and before you know it you break something and are plunged into the depths of despair, it happens all the time).

I’ll let you know how it turns out!
See you in a week’s time!!

Au revoir!
Sayonara!
Ciao!

^_^