3 day long birthday

From Bestie

My birthday fell on a Friday and it so happened to be that last day of my 7 year long job. *Double Celebration*

I had been looking forward to my last day at work more than my actual birthday, but when the day came around, I was spoiled rotten, that my birthday ended up being the reason for my smile.

A colleague baked me a blue velvet cake (tastes the same as red velvet) and we started the day off early by eating cake.

The ABC of me

Bailey over at Vanilla Blonde blogged about this the other day and I loved the concept (after my April A-Z challenge, it seems that the alphabet is a recurring theme here)

Thought I would hop on the bandwagon and share my alphabet with you.

Animal Cruelty
Nothing in life distresses me as much as animal cruelty. I know I would be capable of murder.
If I found any abusers, I would shoot them... somewhere really painful so that they could die slowly. No second thoughts and no remorse.
People like this do not deserve to be on the planet. Despicable scum.

Balki Bartokomous

Very random I know! But this is what I immediately thought of when I was pondering the letter B.

My brother and I loved watching Perfect Strangers when we were younger. Balki's character was very sweet and kind and I loved his Dance of Joy.

Lessons to be learnt

There are many sayings in life that are meant to help us get through the tough times:

God only gives you as much as you can carry

A woman is like a teabag, you only know her true strength when she is put in hot water

Be like a tree in the storm; you will bend, but you won't break

... Yet somehow I cannot find a single one that seems to work for me this time around. Curiously, I am not as beaten down as I imagined someone in my position should be feeling right now. 

{Travel Tuesday} Kimberley

Now that the April A-Z Challenge is completed, I now have the luxury of blogging once a week instead of daily.

We now return to our normal schedule :-)

Last year we wanted a short getaway over a long weekend and we chose Kimberley.
Everyone asked me if I was mad, but I have always wanted to see The Big Hole and explore the old town that is reputably one of the most haunted places in the country.

{April A-Z Challenge} The Letter Z

Z is for ... Zipline

I am not the most adventurous when it comes to physical activities. Give me a passport and a random air ticket and I will jump on the plane and ask questions later (Hear that The Amazing Race?)

Physical stuff? Not my forté.

When a friend from Australia visited in 2010 and only had time to visit Gauteng and not the Western Cape, I was slightly distressed.

The Cape is one of our best tourist spots in the country. After only a short car ride, you can be sipping glasses (note the plural) of wine in the winelands. You could spend a day watching the whales or the kite-surfers by the sea. On a clear day, you would want to explore the very top of Table Mountain; the possibilities are endless. 

I scrambled to compile a list of activities that could be enjoyed in and around Johannesburg, and one of them was Ziplining. I had never done this before and it looked like fun.

After a short briefing, we were kitted out and ready to go:

Sexy Straps

Our next stop

Tharien FAILING at looking scared (Well done Shez, you nailed it)

If you are ever in Johannesburg, there are a host of activities to keep you busy & I am sure you will love it as much as I do:

• Visit he Bird Park at Montecasino and realise that birds are more interesting than you thought
• Grab a delicious milkshake at the Protea Hotel Fire & Ice (They use entire bars of chocolate!)
• Visit the Lion Park and touch a lion cub if you are lucky - the older cubs are more grumpy when you disturb their sleep
• Take a day trip to Parys and have lunch at a decadently decorated restaurant called Rubys
• Go next door to the little coffee shop and mess around on their awesome lounging chair, clearly made for some with long legs.

And so, the April A-Z challenge has ended.

It has been an amazing month of blogging. I have enjoyed being forced to blog and had fun trying to come up with a theme for the letter of the day.

The best advice I saw was a post that said, "There is no such thing as not enough time, even 5 minutes a day will yield a great post - all you need is practice"

I actually tried the 5 minute challenge and excluding photo selection and uploading, it worked out pretty well once I had a topic in mind.

I will not be taking part in the May Challenge due to a few circumstances happening this month, but I really look forward to doing one soon again.

Thank you to all who read my blog and to those who shared the love by commenting, no matter what you say, I appreciate every word.