My Interview a'la Expat

I was reading "That damn expat"s blog the other day when I saw that she'd come accross a fantastic bloggy idea wherebye your readers ask you to interview them and you e mail them five questions that they have to answer.

I figured what the heck and I commented asking her to interview me, and she did!

Ok so it works both ways. if you want me to interview you just reply to this post by commentin 'Interview Me' and I'll do just that!

Here are the rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.


Question 1:
I've never been to South Africa but am planning a trip for the World Cup. Introduce me to your country.

Great I can't wait for you to get here! I think a lot of people are coming through in 2010. It's a very exciting moment for us and we've been working like busy bees for the past 3 years to build transport systems, new roads, stadiums etc. There's definately a LOT of buzz about the Soccer World Cup.

Anyways.. South Africa is democratic, muli-racial country of approximately 49 million people. It's situated on the Southern most tip of Africa underneath Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia and has about 8 different eco systems.

We have 11 official languages, 9 provinces and 5 major cities. I live in Johannesburg which is the administrative capital of the country. It's right smack bang in the middle of the country in the Gauteng province which is by far the smallest and ironically has the largest population.

As a country we're the biggest economy in Africa, we have the strongest currency (the Rand) and we have several large business focuses including Tourism, Manufacturing, Agriculture etc. In fact, many of the cars you all drive and much of the fruit you eat comes from us!

Other notables include Rhinos, Cape Town, Charlize Theron,Lions, Rugby World Cup Champions, Cheetahs, Leopards, Giraffes, Great White Sharks, Elephants, Nelson Mandela, Biltong, Braais, Pap, Poitjie Kos, Elke en ander talle (other languages, I speak Afrikaans too), Johnny Cleg, , Arnold Vosloo, Melk Tart, All Gold Tomato Sauce, Nando's and the best beaches you've ever seen.

Come visit!

We're awesome.

Question 2:
Congratulations on graduating! (Yes, I do read your blog.) If you could go back four years, would you change anything?

Thank you! It's really nice to know that someone reads what I write considering I've only been blogging for 2 months and I'm kinda lazy.

When I went to university I really had no idea what I wanted to do. I still don't. In hindsight I would have taken a year off after school to travel and get stuck into real life so that I would have had a better idea of what it's all about. I think a stint as a telemarketer or a shop assistant would have done me some good.

I love English and I'm glad I studied it but the problem is that it doesn't really have a lot of practical application. There isn't really a lot of money in writing or copywriting and while money's not everything, it's still nice to have.

One thing I wish I had studied and hope I may still study one day is law. I think I'd make a mean advocate.

Question 3:
I see you love music. Tell me one thing about music that you personally love the most.

I've been playing in some band or another since I was 12. It was always something I loved to do whenever I got the chance and I love spending time crafting and creating songs.

Mostly I love the creative element. I always struggle to get things down on paper and write them out but for me writing a song with my friend is generally effortless and void of all pressure.

I'm also a bit of a show off so I love playing live. More so now than ever.

Oh and I LOVE playing my favorite guitar!

Question 4:
I see you are in love. Tell me one thing about your girl that makes her stand out.

Well she can hardly see for one. Without her glasses she lives in a fuzzy, unfocused world and it's pretty cute.

Ok, I guess I'll have to get sloppy...No matter what happens she's always on the look out for other stuff to do, when she finds something she is able to completely lose herself in the possibilities before she's even started something (she was decorating our flat before we had furniture, or a flat). Even though it can really get to me sometimes I think it's pretty funny and it makes me laugh.

She also cooks like a DEMON, oh my word her food is the best.


Question 5:
Why „Unicorns"?


When I joined Blogger I wasn't really sure of what was going on. I chose the first thing that came to my mind for my username and only discovered later that it was kind of wierd.

I read a whole post on why it's cool to date a unicorn a few weeks ago and it's hilarious.
Read it here, Seriously. It's something you should do.

PS: My username used to be Unicorns

There we go, all done! Thanks Expat for the interview, your blog rocks my working and I think it's awesome that we're in a pretty similar time zone. Read her blog if you know what's good for you!

December Update: I'm back

I haven't really posted much lately. In the past few weeks I've experienced a lack of creativity and an increase in apathy towards writing, leaving me feeling rather blah and shitty.

But I'm back, or at least I think so. Here's an update:

Things are winding down at work now being December and all. Unfortunately I've only been working here since September and haven't managed to accrue an awful lot of leave in that time. While everybody has been jetting off to Kenya, Australia etc I've been staring blankly at my screen trying to figure out how to navigate around Websense so I can read all of your Blogs. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't but nevertheless I just want to say thanks for keeping me entertained with all of your crazy antics!

One of my first published articles was released nationally last week in a magazine called SL. I've been dreaming of being published in that magazine since I was 14 and now it's happened I don't feel much different. I'm beginning to think that writing for magazines isn't really for me, I like it and all, and it's super cool to walk into any store and see the magazines on the rack but it doesn't give me that buzz...Regardless, I'm doing monthly reviews for them now and the other day I picked up a few free CD's to stamp approval onto. One of which was the new Guns 'n Roses album.

Has anyone heard it? What do you think?

I've been giving a lot of thought lately to starting my own events company. I dabbled this year in organising some pretty big rock festivals and all of them were really successful. More than this I frikken LOVED organising it all. It's so exciting. Rock shows aren't real money makers however and if I'm going to start a business then I need to change the business plan to incorporate something that will. Any ideas?

Yesterday was the lady and me's anniversary. It was also a public holiday which meant we got to spend the whole day together. After her parents, her sister and said sister’s boyfriend came over to see our new flat we did a bit of Christmas shopping (mistake), grabbed a bite to eat and drove home. We swam and tanned at the complex pool, I went to gym and then we sat around wallowing in complete boredom for an hour or so.

Eventually I made the fantastic suggestion to go to the casino down the road and play the cheapest slots we could find with R100 ($10). I managed to lose my half but my enormously lucky heroine girlfriend won us about $20 and we went for a meal at a gourmet burger restaurant on the casinos cash! It might seem silly but it was frikken great. I had the biggest Cheese Burger I'd ever seen and finished it all. The chef was impressed.

Oh, oh and we got a couch! It's an L shape and it's really very comfortable. Watching TV on that old sleeper couch of mine that barely fit one of us, let alone two was getting kind of old....

Please consider me when you reverse

Some people drive well, some people don't drive so well.

In South Africa we don't really have much of an infrastructure when it comes to public transport, (in part because the distances are quite considerable). It is because of this that most people have a car and drive regularly.

I like to think I'm pretty sweet at steering my one and a half ton silver VW in the right direction. heck, this morning I parallell parked in one smooth, debonairish movement. I felt like James Bond. I am awesome at driving.

When I'm reversing out of a parking spot I usually look where I'm going before putting the car into gear. It seems common knowledge (and sense) to check that there are no vehiculars driving in your general direction before you drive that way. Am I wrong?

Why then, everytime I come back to work from buying Green Tea and an Energy Bar, does every single lebanese grandmother (I work down the road from a lebanese catholic church) have to pull out a little before she looks where she's going? it's kind of frustrating and it scares the shit out of me.

Damn you lebanese grandmothers of the world and your 4x4 utility offroad all terrain vehicles that you've never taken off the tarmac.

The lebanese are pretty of hardass/badcore in these parts, I hope they don't read this.....