My Star

Hi all. Hope you had a relaxing weekend. I thought I'd tell you about an exciting opportunity that has come up.

In July we heard that Top Billing (a locally produced "lifestyle" tv show) was looking for a new presenter and that they would be running it in the form of a competition. They are looking for someone with the Top Billing look and sound. I'm probably my husbands hugest fan ever - so I thought that this was a great opportunity for him. The prize is a 3 month contract with Top Billing - they will pay you a salary for those 3 months and give you complete TV presenter training. In order to enter you needed to complete an entry form/questionnaire and send in a recent full-length photograph. Since Brad is 20kg heavier in our fantastic professional photos we had taken in Taiwan, I organised a professional photographer to take some studio shots of him. We then sent in the entry. A selection of people to attend auditions were supposed to be announced earlier in August and when we hadn't heard anything we dismissed the whole thing - thinking that was the end of that.

On Tuesday (21 August) Brad got a call to say that he's been invited to attend the first round of auditions on Saturday 25 August at the SABC (the South African Broadcasting offices) in Sea Point. You can only imagine our suprise and the accompanying excitement. By Tuesday evening Brad had memorised the script he needed to present at the audition.

On Saturday morning Brad was up bright and early - too nervous to sleep - and ready to conquer the day ahead. His audition was at 5:30pm that afternoon. We were in Sea-Point by 5pm. I went along for moral-support and waited for Brad at a cafe bar next to the SABC. His audition basically consisted of him saying his memorised lines a few times in different ways: standing still, up close, walking from one point to another. He thoroughly enjoyed it and said that it was an incredible experience.

Apparently there were thousands of entries from across the country and just under 400 people were selected to attend the auditions. We're quite chuffed that Brad was one of those selected people. They are now going to select 12 people to go forward - and one will be chosen. As Brad said though, even if he doesn't make it through and the entire experience ends here - it was a fantastic opportunity and he can now say that he has had his shot at being on camera.

Flatmate Reunion

Bridget and Schalk are back from the UK. After their time in Taiwan (where they also met), they headed off to the UK (I think it was for the last 2 years) and they've returned to South African soil. Although they're currently living in Gauteng they came down this past weekend to catch up with all the Cape Town friends. On Saturday evening Brad and I joined them for a braai. Someone else who joined us was Malan. Back at University I shared a flat with Malan and someone else for 2 & a half years. When I decided to head over to Taiwan Bridget moved in and took over my spot for the remaining 6 months of the year. Bridget then headed over to Taiwan too. It was fun catching up with Malan and laughing at the funny memories. I've posted a picture below of the three of us catching up.

Bridget, Malan & me

Rain Rain go away!!!

It's been a while since I've blogged. My apologies for not keeping my blogpage better up-to-date. I managed to get hooked up on Facebook which is great - it really helps getting back into contact with people and then staying in contact with them. To my horror, it seems that my company has blocked facebook - and also yahoo. So at present I am unable to access either. Brad and I would love to get ADSL but can't commit to the monthly payment just yet and so it looks as though our next best option is to buy a cheap sim card and buy a data bundle so that we can connect with that on our home pc. The problem is that we haven't connected to the net with it in 2 years. There are so many updates that we'll need to make - starting with our virus protection. Once we've worked out a plan I'll hopefully be able to connect and at least touch base on Facebook and Yahoo once a week. So if you are on facebook and you're wondering why I've been so quiet - or why I haven't responded to you - you now know. It looks like my blog is going to be the best way for me to stay in touch. Hopefully they don't go and block blogger.com too.

I've recently been very inspired by Beth's blog (a friend in Taiwan). Her blog is definitely the most interesting, colourful and up-to-date blog I've seen. Her colourful collage of photos keep me smiling - and make me miss Taiwan more and more with each posting. Thanks for the beautiful blog Beth!

Two weekends ago weekend Brad and I headed out to the same farm we went to for our anniversary. The weather was cold and miserable on Friday and Saturday - but luckily there was a more-than-ample supply of firewood and Brad kept the 'home-fires' burning. It was mostly an opportunity to catch up with sleep, snuggling and reading. Of course a weekend away would not be complete without a braai. Saturday night, cold as it was, we stood outside eathing chilli pretzels, sipping on sherry and braaing some sirloin and boerewors. On Sunday the skies cleared beautifully and the sun baked down on the wet ground. We were able to see what had been hidden behind the rain clouds - mountain tips covered in snow. There were also many waterfalls coming down the mountains due to the melting snow and heavy rain. Where are the photos you may ask? To my mortification I discovered that I had brought my camera - WITHOUT the memory card. Terribly frustrating. Hopefully I've learn't my lesson and will not forget again.

A few weeks ago I accompanied Brad to his radio show. I thought I'd post some pics of him in the studio:

My dad recently undertook a huge project with my brother - redoing my mom's kitchen for her 60th birthday. This meant moving everything out of the kitchen and relocating for 2 months to a small corner in the living room (let's just say that my mom is VERY glad that that is over). My dad then proceeded to remover everything - the cupboards, the flooring... everything. It was just an empty shell. My dad together with my brother redesigned the new cupboard and my brother, Brian, then executed this project. The end result is absolutely stunning. We've gone from a 1960's kitchen to a 2007 kitchen. You can see the results for yourself:

Before

During

After
Before

After

Before

After