Discovery Photo-shoot - 10 July 2012

When the notification popped up in my mailbox asking for folk to please consider having their pictures taken by the Discovery team my first thought was, "OH HELL NO!" And I deleted it!

Then of course I realized I'd gone from Jo to coward in 7 seconds flat! How embarrassing!

So I fished it out of the deleted items, said, sure sign me up, and sent the mail off before rational thought could say otherwise. 

Oh my Smurf what had I done?!? 

I enjoy stretching the boundaries of my comfort zone, but having people take pics of me?

AAAAARGH!!!

So eventually the day dawned and I went down to the offices where the photos were being taken, clutching my cellphone and wearing the facial expression of a rabbit who's trying to charm a starved wolf and knowing she's not succeeding so well...

First off we had make-up slathered on.
Now I don't like make-up, it's against my made-up religion, but even the guys had to get powdered up, so, with a long suffering sigh, I got into the queue.

It was a long, long, loooooooooooooong, wait! Finding things to do in that line started to get interesting.

Once all the goop was on my face, I stood by, watching the Photographer show people exactly what he wanted.

EXACTLY WHAT HE WANTED!

Some people were pulled over afterwards and shown how their photos came out.
I wasn't one of them.
Mercy is a quality I highly admire.

It took an hour, 15minutes to get my 5 minutes in front of the camera. Admittedly that was fun and I enjoyed goofing off. I wonder if I'll ever get to see them? These are stock photos to be used at Discovery's discretion. Where Jo's face could end up? Who know?

And then that was it and good bye, be on your merry.

It was an unusual experience, and not as scary as I had thought it would be, even with the make-up!
It was wonderful to face that fear and knock it 6 ways from Sunday!!!
And now my views on being photographed?

"Meh."

Lifestyle Nursery - Randburg - May 2012

I feel this is such a wonderfully interesting place that it cannot be adequately described in words, so lets use a ton of pics shall we? 

Brilliant!!

The have a ton of pets you can buy such as:

Fat fluffy bunnies!

Inquisitive hamsters!

And Guinea pigs who'd rather have slept in!

A wealth of fish

 And twice that of spiders!

Snakes

More spiders

And yet MORE spiders!

And birds in any colour you require! (I want one that eats spiders!!!)

Their flowers are a range of near edible colours!

 And the roses in techni-colour!

 Just ask any bee!

 Any plant you want, they probably have it. And in taupe!

Not to mention the standard naff pottery that every nursery seems to stock.

And a restaurant for a nosh when you're all 'tuckered' out!

And many little odd shops where you can get that clown wig you've always wanted

Up this alleyway and down that one! There's something here for everyone

Snack Break!

Care for a good book then? Or a trashy teen vampire book?

How about some stained glass for your castle Dracula?

Or maybe a little something softer?

 And silkier! A whole shop of silk that is!

 Maybe, with the profusion of life around you, you'd rather have fake flowers? Easier to care for. Why water them when you can dust?

And sticks in various shades to stick where ever you want... let's not ask too deeply on that one!

And fine woman's wear for the man of your choice! I think the T-shirt describes that headgear best!

And then what better way to end the celebration of life than with a large hunk of dried, raw meat?

May I recommend a visit to the nursery? Ideally with me? You won't leave empty handed! (If only because I'll show you a ton of stuff you can buy me! ^_-)

Lets Kinect! XBox 360! 19 May 2012

The time had come!

Time to play with Rob's Kinect on his XBox!

Basically it's a nifty doo-dad that tracks your movement and makes you "move" inside a game. It's a fun way to get a bit of exercise and still play and have fun indoors. We're doing the sports variety!

Time to PLAY!!!

We did bowling and then next, some ping pong! (Table tennis for the anally retentive)

Oh dude, I'm so psyched! Bring it it on!

Who's ready to play?

Jo's new patented funky chicken flap ensured victory over a wily computerized opponent! (Who may have been on amateur level but it still counts!)

Slid to the left! Slide to the right! Do-si-do and back again!

What? Elegance and grace are not my strong suit!

Then soccer! Kicking and scrambling about! It gets pretty tiring!

Block the non-existent ball! Block the non-existent ball!!!!

Cor Blimey I'm knackered!!
YOUR TURN!!

ILab Training - 16 - 18 May 2012

From Wednesday to Friday - very agreeable study days, I was off work and on Course learning all about the ins and outs of being a software tester! I was doing the very basic Practical Software Testing course, but you do have to start somewhere.

Aaaah was I so excited!!! I've never been on a course for work before! Didn't know what to expect or if I'd be any good or if there'd be  tons of friendly people or would it just be me and a disgruntled lecturer who's got a chronic mint addiction? You just don't know!

Admittedly things started off a bit wonky as I had the wrong address for the place, but once that small but telling bug was sorted I was soon in class and learning with the best of them!

ILabs was fantastic! The lecturers knew their stuff and made the learning smooth and entertaining. The class was small so you could have all the individual attention your needy heart required and even the little cafeteria served healthy, tasty snacks and beverages.

And the building complex! Oh it was beautiful! All the trees in autumn colour! I made a point of walking up and down the long driveway each day to soak in the scenery, my photo below just doesn't do it justice!

But I have to say the course was an eye opener! In three days they managed to shove a ton of knowledge in my grey matter in such a way that suddenly so many things were making real sense! 

I now know everything from EXACTLY what a test procedure is, to how to do an S graph, to effective testing designs to even what RFC stood for! I didn't realize learning could be so fun! I'm actually quite sorry it's over for all I am keen to test my knowledge back at work! 

I feel very useful and that makes me just that bit extra happy to be alive! I feel sorry for anyone who isn't a tester and didn't get to go on training with me! 

So, when's the next course due?!

Pagan Fest / Rhodes Park - Kensington - Friday 27 2012

The first Pagan Festival in South Africa and weren't we keen to go and see what's what? We left bright and early that Friday (Public holiday - Hoorah!) and got to Rhodes Park nice and early, very excited to see how this festival would be pulled of! We expected stalls and fires and people in witch hats and all sorts of interesting things. 

Well, weren't we Gyp'd! It was basically a few stalls with nifty little trinkets you'd expect to find in any emo teen's room, that you could get at well near any flea market that would at least have had a pet stall to keep you entertained. There were no festivities, no odd balls in black cloaks, no excitement, not even a virgin sacrifice! I'm not sure weather I myself or any covert Christians were more disappointed.

I did love this big wad of magnets! Reflecting a thousand Jo's taking photos! We explored the entire thing in 5 minutes.

Luckily Rhodes Park itself turned out to be terribly fun and we went romping about taking some stunning pictures of the autumn foliage!

 And lovely water scenery!

We took pics from the local wild life (that either watched us suspiciously, or totally ignored us!)

 To odd tree roots...

 To piles and piles of cushy, crisp leaves...

To the mouth watering autumn vista that was all around us in general!

 There was even a playground where some over-sized kiddies were getting their kicks!

 Some of the ponds and pools of water were so crystal clear!

 You wanted to just dive in and swim - if getting a free dose of Bilharzia wasn't on the menu.

 We also explored all the old ruins at the park. Houses from yester-year, all over weeds, broken glass and random jackets and paint cans lying about. The plastic on this one's roof made it glow green and eerie!

 Back to perving over nature!

 I love this photo!

 We even found an old outdoor stage, where maybe, a decade or so ago, you could have put on a small play for friends and family.

 Mind there was a whole ton of wasps in the ceiling which sort of put you off hanging about there very long. This pic was taken with the utmost bravery!!!
(And it's good to know no one got to see me high-tailing it out of there afterwards!)

The whole park was really stunning!! Personally, I think, wrapped in all that beauty and nature, we had a far more spiritual time than anything the Pagan Festival had to offer. Amen.