Saving the planet :)

ok, sure I've been scarce but it's all for a good cause. At the moment we are crazily working on promoting EARTH HOUR! (what is Earth Hour, you ask with wide-eyed intrigue).

Earth Hour
We (WWF) are basically calling on a billion people worldwide to turn off their lights for an hour at 20:30 on 28 March. This unified, symbolic act is aimed at the world leaders who, at the end of this year, meet to decide on a new global climate deal. Needless to say, what they decide is really make or break for the planet. In addition to asking people to turn off their lights, we are also importantly asking them to sign up and pledge to do so. The reason for that is so that we can actually quantify the number of people participating and so make a strong case for action on climate change.

So... dear loyal reader... how do you participate?
Well you sign up through the widget on my blog for one.
Now here's the added thing... we are running a competition internally here at work and the staff member who signs on the most people gets a week's holiday at a hotel in plett with her Band... PEOPLE I NEEEEEEEEEEEEED THIS!!

Can you get people to come to my blog and sign up through my widget? The widget tracks who signs up through me.please please please??? I am clearly not above begging!! :)

OR EVEN BETTER:
please load this widget onto your blogs and encourage all your blogbuddies to do the same. The widget is coded and I will get kudos for the entries. YIPPEEEEEEE

<***iframe scrolling="no" width="162" frameborder="0" src="http://www.earthhour.org.za/widgets/widget160x330.php?refer=40d416b1acc47b16fe13238caf0eb8bd&wid=72" marginheight="0" height="332" marginwidth="0"***>

NB: Just remember to delete the 3 stars at the start and end of the code else it won't work :) They are just there so you can view the code as text :)

THANKS GUYS!!!!!

Happy Anniversary

to me and my Band :)
3 years today and it's been FANTASTIC!

So tonight we'll do dinner or something, but tomorrow we fly to JHB and friday morning we leave for 3 nights in the Sabi Sands. If you like going green then click here and prepare to want to hit me :) Its going to be pretty dam amazing. And no, in case you are wondering, we can't afford R4900 per person per night, but we know a guy... and so we stay there for PEANUTS!!

I am certainly not above 3 nights in 6 star luxury in the bush. BRING IT ON!!

Just B Positive

Is it weird that I've never known my blood type? Well it's B Positive and I am oddly stoked about it.

flu sucks

seriously. who has flu in the heat of frikken summer!?

BEEEEEEG SECRETS!!

well anyway, I have a mystery to unveil to the chosen few. Those who would like to know what the hell I'm on about, send your email address to mabakerscountdown@gmail.com

All shall be revealed....

An interview with ME

So my American blog buddy (would that make him a bluddy??) Bruce has sent me a list of interview questions... how exciting!

Here they are...

1) You live in South Africa, and many of the rest of us don't. For those that have never been, what would you say are the major differences, not so much physically, but culturally. What would Americans find odd and vicea-versa?

I think that SA is both very diverse and very conservative. The last time I was in the states I was kind of shocked by things like the youth swearing in their cellphone while sitting next to an old granny on a bus. Even a "skollie" (dodgy type person) here would, in my experience, have ingrained respect for their elders. I guess that's something in the African tradition as well. My gran was mugged once (she was mid-80s at the time)and she reprimanded the guy and he gave her stuff back. Another time, her wallet was snatched and then left outside her door the next day.
Now don't get me wrong, I love the States - esp New York City and ESP the bagels they sell there. INCREDIBLY GOOD for a carbs fan like myself!

2) Do South Africans see Barack Obama as the coming of the American Nelson Mandela?
ummmmmmm, i doubt it. I mean we are all inspired and whatever, but Madiba is Madiba and you don't get a second man who is made to spend his best years in prison for fighting Apartheid and then comes out and forgives everyone - even invites his jailer to tea - and preaches peace rather than revenge. Nah, we have dibs on Madiba magic in SA :)

3) The name of the boyfriend is 'The Band', which is totally confusing. Why do you call him that, what is the significance?
No no no. The Band is short for the husBAND.

4)In the end, when you are 80, do you want to be in the lap of luxury and able to give your children and your life long friends the benefit of your labors, or would you rather be poor and destitute, but with a lifetime of wonderful memories? Explain why.

The second, no question.
Luxury is great in small doses but I battle to relate to people who live in the lap of luxury. Especially in a country where you have people sleeping on the floor of tin shacks in the middle of winter probably just down the road from you. I'd rather have fun than big moolahs anyday! I think being really rich would be really lonely.

5) We should all have a list of things we want to accomplish in our lifetimes.....what is at the top of yours? What is at the bottom?
ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Crikey, it changes all the time. I'd love to write a book. I'd love to travel Africa properly. I'd love to see the gorillas in Uganda.

it seems a bit early in the year

for a week to consist of 4 mondays in a row.

"4 Mondays" you say, "But that's not possible!"

On the contrary, it is very possible...

On the first Monday:
Me and The Band had a little scrap...(sadly ours are nowhere near as dramatic as EXMI's, but it was a fight nonetheless). Sure, he had no idea (until I brought it up today) that a fight had even occurred or that I was offended, but still, to me it was there - a big, nasty, festering thing.

On the second Monday:
Victims of crime people. I know. There we were merrily watching a DVD when we heard Booster's cries for help. (Booster is our Hilux that we got for the trip, try to keep up people) The Band looked out the window and saw a guy fumbling in the car. Suddenly my soutie man became Afrikaans and shouted "Jou Bliksem!!!!" as he sprinted after the guy. He chased him round the neighbourhood and managed to recover a dvd player which he'd stolen from Harry's house. So the guy actually got away with nothing although he did break our window (the bliksem). It was quite exciting actually - the thief had left his bag of goods in our garden. It was like a little treasure chest - gazillions of watches, some gold bangles, bully beef (minivom).

On the third Monday:
I had ambitious plans to cycle home from work. I am doing the Argus SOOOON and haven't even got on my bike since about March last year. Brought all my stuff and voila. Puncture. So there goes that idea. So much for good intentions.

On the fourth Monday:
My boss called my colleague and I in and more or less told us we had bad attitudes. I KNOW! Now I am many things, but rude and disrespectful in the work context, I am not. She was upset with our feedback on her plans. She asked our input and we gave it and she didn't like it. There was no rudeness. Only constructive criticism. Last I checked this was a workplace, not a warm and fuzzy lets all be best friends play group. (So yes, the attitude has certainly worsened).

Fortunately, today is FRIDAY at last and the weekend is beckoning.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO MEEEEEEE

Today Spacebook turns 200 posts old!

time flies like the wind, fruit flies like bananas

actually, time does not fly. Anyone who is back at work and reading this will concur. but let's not even go there...

instead of moaning (more) or having (yet another) tea break, i thought i'd spread some cheer from my favourite sickos at cyanide and happiness...

Travel in the time of Cholera

Seriously, where do i start? There is so much to tell you... so many funny stories and sad stories. But I will tell them in bits and pieces as the weeks go by... Make sure I tell you about the White Water Rafting(!!) and the Dhow trip! In the meantime, our trip briefly went as follows....

Ok the brief itinerary was this:

• we first went up to Mozambique to spend about 2 weeks on the island of Bazaruto.


• Then we headed accross to Zimbabwe. Spent a couple of nights in Harare (the capital of Zim) before heading to Mana Pools for 5 days ("The world's wildest game reserve" - so called because although all the big game are present there are no fences and pretty much no rules which means you can walk through the bush alone if you want - we did, of course).


• after a stop at Lake Kariba,


• we went over to Zambia and spent time in a town called Livingstone,


• before crossing over to Victoria Falls.


• Finally after 4 weeks of camping we spent our last night at the most insane 5 star reserve being pampered before heading back via Beit Bridge (Crazy insane border crossing between Zim and SA - I KNOW!)

So countries visited were:

• Mozambique (great place, very poor, Portuguese influence)


• Zimbabwe (the pockmark on the face of Mbeki's presidency... for any who may not know, Zimbabwe is in the midst of genocide and human rights travesties... inflation is in the MILLIONS of percents, people are starving, cholera is devastating the country, the leader is a psychotic despot who refuses to acknowledge the results of the previous election... BUT it is beautiful. The people are some of the best i have ever met. They are genuine passivists. Going to Zim I both fell in love with it and had my heart broken by it. But Zim will be it's whole own post.


• Zambia.... a let down after Zim. People weren't friendly. Felt a bit harassed there.

Currencies we used:

• American Dollars


• Mozambican meticals (25 to the US$)


• Zim Dollars (changes daily, but when we were there it was about 4million to the US$)


• Zambian kwacha (4885 to the US$)


• South African rands (around 10 the US$)

Ok a few cool pics for you.

BAZARUTO:

Sunset on Bazaruto

A dhow - we sailed over from the mainland to Bazaruto on one of these

My little friend "Now". He came and spent a day with The Band and I... so sweet. Holding a giant starfish.

HARARE:

A shop in Harare... the shelves are pretty much empty except for a few sweets.

Prices in Zim Dollars. A bit of a joke. Prices are generally handwritten as they go up on a daily basis. The official inflation rate is 231million percent. I kid you not.

Cars queueing for petrol... the queue goes all the way down the road. There was no diesel available in Harare when we were there.

MANA POOLS:

Sitting at camp watching a hippo grazing

Some zeebeez

The group: The Band, The Joshwaaaa, The Harry and The Caz

Lake Kariba

Lake Kariba at dusk

Victoria Falls

Standing in front of Mosi Oa Tunya "The Smoke That Thunders". Victoria Falls is a sight that literally renders you breathless. Niagara Falls is beautiful, but Vic Falls is RAW.

Just above the falls... see the mist rising in the background.

The Zambezi River

Sunset on a river cruise on the Zambezi

And again

Last sunset on the Zambezi

Back in South Africa

I've got to get out of this place

So from whence do I blog? From Vilanculos? From Komatipoort perhaps? No? At least from Joburg. Surely! Nope…from my bluddy lounge!

Why... Why am i not well on my way to Mozambique?
why am i still here
instead of here



or more specifically here...
coz here it looks like this:

oooh brace yourselves... it's not a pretty story.

I was just about home yesterday all ready to leave when i got a call from Harry... the guy who lives in our flat.

He got home and couldn't find Zac (the male dog). Zebu (his wife/neice) was going crazy at the wall. Harry looked below the wall into the neightbours place (their property is lower than ours) and saw zac lying there in the sand covered in blood.

He jumped over and fetched him then the neighbours pitched up. It seems Zac had fallen into their garden and their 5 SIFF DOGS had mauled him... remember this post? Same dogs.

So Harry asks them how long ago it happened. They said about an hour. "So why didn't you let us know?" Harry asks.

"Why you getting so agressive?" they reply "maybe next time we'll take him to the vet so he can finish the job off properly."

Ok.... (breath, breath, breath). Those #$%^&*(#$%^&*()#%$^&*() fill in your own decriptives... seriously, what kind of sick sick people would leave a small dog in the sand to bleed to death??? If harry hadn't noticed he was missing that is exactly what could have happened!

We have never even MET these people so it's not like they could have an issue with us! They are obviously just evil awful people who should not be allowed to own dogs.

So we took Zac to the vet and he got a bunch of injections and stitches and stuff. The vet said it was very unusual that the majority of his bites are in the front. (Ha! That's our boy... he faced those 5 mutts head on!)

So today Zac is a lot better. Up and walking around. Chipper - probably stoned from all the medication. We will leave in about 20 minutes, so adios amigos. I will miss you all. My SMS roaming number is +27 82 929 0348.... send me love!

PS. Do you think zac's nightmare was a premonition of the fight??

PSS. What steps do you think we can take against the neighbours on our return?
A lawyer's letter from a mate to scare them - in terms of them threatening our dog?
TP their house?

Invite them to dinner and kill them with kindness?

All suggestions are welcome. I can not bare people who are cruel to animals...

Merry Christmas from Caz and her Band

Click here to see how we plan to see in the new year somewhere in the bundus!!!!

Nightmare on Abelia street

So it's no more sleeps... tonight we leave for our Big Trip. AT LONG BLUDDY LAST!
So this is how it's going down...

The characters:

• The Band (the hot one)
  
• The Caz (the supposed damsel in distress who is actually the hero of the story)
  
• The Joshwaaaa (AKA The Oracle. their faithful friend of old, best man at the wedding, part of every major adventure they've ever had, and in fact, the one who introduced The Band to The Caz)
  
• The Harry (the youngest and newest to the group – AKA replacement Josh. While Josh lives in JHB, Harry lives in their flat. He's become part of the family and The Band and The Caz keep tabs on him ensuring that he is home within his curfew and gets a decent meal every once in a while)

The plot:
A couple of weeks ago our characters buy a Toyota Hilux aka The BOOSTER (bought at a steal on auction - bless this financial crisis) and pimp it up. Much planning and packing and purchasing and borrowing ensues while our heroine organizes 2 weeks free camping on Bazaruto island (all in a day’s work!) and bakes rusks and crunchies in her spare time.

4 weeks will be spent driving, eating, sleeping, dhowing, snorkeling, beach batting, exploring, birding, bribing, swimming, reading, pokering, backgammoning and white water rafting. Firstly we go to the tropical paradise of Bazaruto – gorgeous island off Mozambique. Then it’s off to Mana Pools – the wildest park in Africa. No fences around camps. Unaccompanied walking permitted. After that possibly Lake Kariba or possibly not and then…VIC FALLS. We’ll white water raft and should be able to spend a night or 2 in the 5 star Matetsi Lodge through Josh.

Where are we now:
The chalk board countdown is over and it’s no sleeps til we leave. This evening we drive through to JHB. Sunday morning we leave for Vilanculos in Mozambique. On Monday we take a dhow over to Bazaruto….

The house is chaos. The car is ready. The packing will be done tonight. The audio books have been taken out the library (I really am that dorky!). Music is being burned to CDs. Tensions are high all around.

The Fine Print
Our plans are not set in stone. We are all pretty chilled and will play things by ear. If things really go bad in Zim we’d have to make a call on whether it is still wise to go that route. We could do both Mana Pools and Vic Falls from the Zambia side if needs be.

The Muttlies
Shame, I haven't blogged about my stepdogs in a long time and actually a delicate truce has occurred. See when I got into my gardening phase I realised that the Zac (also known as the Caz-backwards) and the Zebu can be useful allies - I was trying to dig up grass for a veggie patch and it was exhaaaaausting. Then I invited the pooches with an encouraging "dig!dig!" and pointed where I needed digging and in about 5 mins I had a gorgeous patch of ground. Cheap labour, you got to love it!

Well needless to say, with all the packing going on the pooches are getting mightily depressed. They KNOW! Shame. Last night at about 3am we were woken to the most spine chilling mournful howling. "Arrooooooooooorooooowoooooooooooooooooo". Had Zac been bitten by a snake? We went to look for him and called and called and he didn't come. Eventually the Band found him still fast asleep and in the throes of a terrible nightmare. I suspect he dreamt that we were going away for a month....

Shame!

he (also) finally did it....

The Band himself posted his very first comment on my blog and there is even talk about him doing a guest post, he enjoyed it so much.

(The difference between guys and girls is that if i was reading the 10 things that the Band finds most annoying about me i'd probably leave miffed. Not The Band. He cackled evilly and no doubt made some internal vows to step up the efforts in the annoying the Caz department!)

Slyde and Glugs even got special mentions from him! fame indeed.
Go check his comment on this post, pay no heed to his insiduous lies and allegations though...

Oh and pleeeeeeeeeeeez all comment - it will make his day.

he finally did it...

The 11th commandment:

Thou shalt have sexy times for 7 days.

Have you guys heard about this? This pastor has challenged the marrieds in his church to have sex every day for a week. Well I say Halleluia! Preach it brother!!! :)

The low down on the Band

The answers to your questions about my husBand (please note all the linking and bolding and effort so you can forgive me for taking so long!) BTW I really thought you lot would come up with saucier questions.. i don't know whether to be relieved or disappointed!

From Being Brazen (by the way congrats on the 200th post!! I'm 9 posts away!):

"How did you meet the Band?"

We were in class together. We studied conservation. When we did meet through a friend we were sitting outside and a "bergie" (the Cape Town word for homeless person - berg = mountain in Afrikaans) was quite taken with me. the Band tried to SELL ME to him. mm. Needless to say we never liked each other. Not through all the disections practicals where I'd get home and find an eye (or worse) in my bag. Not when he made me cry by claiming his grandad was a nazi who had a gas chamber in his house. Not with his looong hair. Not when I found out that he was crashing my party ie going to work on this crocodile conservation project in the Okavango delta at the same time as me. But when we there it all changed........

From Bruce:

"What type of music does the Band play?"

The Band is honestly not very musical... but he does have rhythm ;)

From Slyde:

"How long has the Band been together?"

Well Slyde, I mean I guess I could ask his mom the conception details, but I'd rather not so I'll have to wing it and say since approx 9 months before his birthday... which makes it since January 1981.

And as for us? Since March 2003...

From Tamara:

"What does the Band do?"

He works for our church full time. He's not a pastor, he does things like organising art exhibitions and doing a website and managing a bunch of staff. Probably the nicest thing about his job is that he gets to do nice and stuff and it counts as work. So if some little old lady asks him to help her tune in her tv he could go do that in work hours and it would be legit.

"What made you fall for him?"

ooooh. now we're getting personal. Ok fine. I had been badly hurt in the past. The Band liked me for a long time and I was not interested. But we were best friends and I loved the way he was to me. So consistently caring. Actually not only to me (but especially to me!) he is one of the kindest and most generous people i know. Not a push over. Not a sap. Knows who he is and what he wants but cares about people. He pretty much refused to give up on me.

"What does he do that drives you nuts?"

This is a bad time to ask because A) I'm sitting here munching on cashews and B) he has been away in Durbs since Friday and I am at that point when someone has been away so long (hey, 3 sleeps is long!!) that they seem flawless and perfect.

I guess something which MURDERS me is that when he cooks he leaves everything open and out and creates CHAOS in the kitchen. When I cook, I clean and pack away and wash as I go so that by the time the meal is served the kitchen is more or less clean.

"Does he read your blog?"

Nope! But I often tell him about you guys.

From Gill:

"Does he comment on your blog?"

Nope :)

"What's the age difference between you?"

He is 7 months older than me, but born in different years.

From EXMI:

"What are his 10 best and 10 most annoying features?"

Now are we talking physical or not?
hmmm ok, i'll just wing it.

10 best:

• SUCH A GREAT BUM


• Great legs


• Gorgeous mouth


• Beautiful eyes


• Great... oh, that's not appropriate :)


• He has a sense of humour which is actually kookier than mine and so we share this connection that only we really get.


• He's an adventurer. We have done some incredible things together - hitchhiking through Botwana, hiking the wild coast, etc and in 11 sleeps we'll be on our way to Bazaruto!


• He's so different with me than with anyone else. I love that.


• He's very competitive as am i and i dig it. We get quite snotty with each other over stuff. We had The Backgammon Challenge going for months and months. The first to win 50 games got to decide how we spent our holiday this year. It got soooo intense, I think he may have actually chucked a chair or something when I finally won in Addo Elephant Park last year. HAHAHA That furious reaction MADE MY DAY. Nothing more satisfying than beating a sore loser!
  
• He holds me tight. We spoon and when my alarm goes off at 5.20 (Bootcamp, people!) I start to get up and in his sleep he pulls me back and holds me tighter.
  
• He often buys me gifts. But not just random bunches of roses, he gets creative. He'll go to a second hand book store and dig out an autographed copy of a book by one of my favourite authors. He'll buy me 50 bucks worth of cashew nuts coz he knows i love them. Stuff like that.

10 worst:

• He always forgets to indicate.
• He smses while driving.
• He borrows my car and returns it to me empty.
• He is not opposed to leaving random stuff all over the house and garden.
• He refers to the mutts as my son and daughter. That REALLY gets me.
• He can get a phrase in his head and repeat it ALL DAY - driving 14 hours to Joburg next week could be baaaaaaaad.
• I know, I know, sorry, but it's true and it bugs me: he leaves the toilet seat up.
• He is not very... um... thorough when he washes the dishes. They are ussually still covered in gunk so I just end up rewashing.
• He refuses to cut his hair regularly and ends up with crazy Kramer hair.
  

"how did the proposal go down??"

Phew... that's a long answer but i will give the quick version. We randomly (or so i thought) decided to just drive and see where the road took us (it was a public holiday the next day). Eventually snuck into a nature reserve on the West Coast at about 2am. Slept there in the car on a mattress. The next morning we went for a walk on this utterly pristine beach. No one and nothing there. Had a picnic under this huge rainbow. As we walked back he kept pointing out little shells and stuff in the sand. Eventually i noticed a little bag. I asked him what it was. He didn't know. Asked if i knew. I didn't know. Opened it and inside was a box, in that was a ring. Then he proposed.

"what's the worst he's done to piss you off?"

He arrived home from Joburg with a mini mutt. He already had the one dog (which I wasn't crazy about) and then he arrived back and "Surprise!" a puppy! I was LIVID. Nearly broke up with him. He offered to get rid of her. I said it was fine. He proposed the next day.

"who has a bigger temper?"

Well he has a far quicker temper than me. It takes a loooooooooooooooooooot to get me angry. When I do get really angry it can take a while to get me out of The Zone. That's probably only happened about 3 times in 8 years we've known each other.

"who's the bigger scaredy cat (between you guys of course)"

Me. Spiders I can not stand. Bats, I am not fond of either. But other than that I'd say we are both pretty hardcore. We have caught crocodiles for goodness sake.

From Glugster:

"Does he have all his toes and fingers?"
Yes, Glugs.

A little behind

is what I'm getting from all this exercise.
waa haa haa
ok actually a little behind is what i clearly am.
But better late than never bla bla bla bla so I am now responding to this request from EXMI.

The LowDown on the Band
*chuckles nervously* well... I mean surely my level of transparency depends on who I know that reads this blog... but what the hell. I'll tell.

Ok, *exhales* what do you want to know?

Perhaps it's better if we do this:
You can ask any question you want about the band and I will post answers to all... Deal?

I'm baaaack :)

It's been a long time (long time) I shouldn'ta left you (left you)

And that is as much rap as I am prepared to type out.

So the countdown to the holidays has begun... 18 sleeps til we leave for paradise.
The band and I are planning a trip of monstrous proportions. First we are going to BAZARUTO where we will camp.
Now from what i understand, the island actually doesn't have a campsite. We are going to be roughing it in a big way - no running water even!! The only reason we can camp there is because i work for who i do. Perks.

Anyway, it's going to be wicked.

Then the plan is to try get to Lake Kariba, Mana Pools and Vic Falls. We are fairly disorganised, but we'll happily go with the flow and decide along the way.

I am soooooooooooo excited. I have been looking forward to an adventure like this all year! YAY!

HAPPY HOLE O WEEN

:)