I'm in Love - Her Name is YUKIMI NAGANO!

Little Dragon, Where have you been all my life?

How beautiful is this?

Psst...Hey, let me tell you something!

Sometimes I Dress up & Sometimes I sing

Introducing "The FUnky DivaS"

Caitllin "Dutchesse" Hill. Nonhlanhla "Tiger Lily" Mditshwa. Didintle "Still Deciding" Ntsie

Indeed the year of experiences. 

The "FUnky DiVas" are born of a tipsy night out on the town singing in the car at the top of our lungs on the way to a dinner party in Sea Point.

"Killing me softly, with his songggg! Telling my whOoOle life with his words, killing me softly..."

So Miss Nonhlanhla - pictured below with the gorgeous one-of-a-kind colourful outfit, is the one who put us to it. She brings Cape Town: "Tiger Lilly presents Boundless Artistic Expression" She heard us belting it out in the car and so a few days later "FUnky DiVaS" was born.

Our next performance will be on Sat 20th March at The Daddy Long Legs Boutique Hotel in Long Street Cape Town.

Come Grin & Bear it.

So back to my downright SHIT week

As soon as I located Ruby I was quickly reminded that I have a whole bunch of unfinished business when I would eventually have her in my shaky arms again.


Her license disc is expired. But unlike most, I somehow managed to go a whole year & bit without renewing it. This means an additional R500 on top of the slightly short of horrendous & obscene amount I had to pay to get her out of the impound. Lets not even go into the unpaid fines and possible outstanding warrants for my arrest (some of you might have to put some bits of change under your beds for Didi’s bail collection money in advance)


It catches up doesn’t it? Sigh.


Then there was the heat – now under normal circumstances I would relish the very bright, relentless presence of the sun & his rays. I’m a self confessed & proud sun lover. But this, ladies & gentleman, was a little short of slow cooking in our skins, stuck in our badly ventilated homes.


I then remembered what I did NOT miss about the Pretoria (highveld area) heat. That kind of ridiculous heat brought back childhood & adolescent memories and realities of a dry bleeding nose (great), a rush of crusty, itchy eczema (fantastic) and sneeze attacks that would come in gangs of 11 loud uncontrollable sneezes in a row (fabulous for public spaces, when you’ve run out of the last morsel of tissue in addition to hearing echoes of dad’s advice “you should carry a handkerchief, its cheap, easy to maintain & its better that toilet paper & tissue - ,my child its not just for old people”)


((Useless tit-bit – My dad really does use the term “my child”. I love him. ))

The weekend was not a particularly restful one either. That annoying acquaintance *FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) decided to possess me at the most inopportune time (oh but offcourse); when I had volunteer work crammed in the “extreme procrastination” pigeonhole.


I had it all worked out in my mind:


Friday night: After a stressful day at work chill out & get some much-needed & deserved rest & me-time.

Saturday: Work through some volunteering work, go to Danya’s birthday braai-party-pool-do, SKIP 340ml live performance no matter the pressure so I can be fresh & functional on Sunday.


Sunday: Early morning I’d be a model for a photo shoot my friend asked me to help him with for his portfolio - yes buddy I shall be there 6am sharp, then come back home, relax with a glass of wine by the pool, finish off what I didn’t manage to finish off on the volunteer work pile & then my reward; date with *Frank.


What actually transpired was nothing short of embarrassing. I did none of the productive items on that list – forget it. In actual fact I went and did some extra stuff that was not on there like fixing my hair (I must admit it was much needed – when your white male friend asks you what’s going on with the weave & when its coming out & what WE are going to do about I, you know its time. It’s non-negotiable. It had to be done)


Just a snippet of how embarrassing: having not slept after a night of partying and seeing 340ml (insert shy, sheepish smile) heading straight to the location for the shoot after a quick bath only to find that that shoot had been cancelled while already on the way there. Stunning. At least I could go get some shut-eye.


A good portion of Sunday was spent trying to locate my cell phone, which thank goodness was off, so that meant I could call it and find precisely where it was without too much trouble. When I showed up at Danya’s place to collect it – I suddenly realised I was wearing the same outfit as the “night before” to her and the rest. The same damn dress – it looked self-explanatory to the outside, unknowing eye. Any explanation was not going to be bought. Quicksand situation. So I didn’t try hard enough to convince.


Fast forward to today, I’m Joburg bound on a flight that I’m not meant to be on. I missed mine, even with 2 alarm clocks, a mom that worries and would normally call to wake me up (but didn't) AND the cab driver sleeping outside my house who also managed to oversleep – honestly? Yup, I know. Well, I did only go to sleep at 2:30am knocking away at the work I didn’t manage to do over the terrible weekend. Which had now jumped into the “critical procrastination” pigeonhole. But it’s done and that’s what matters.


I’m going to step back into the present and chow down on my breakfast & listen to some music.


I shall rant & rave again soon, I’m almost certain. After all I am approaching Johannesburg…only my least favourite city.

The man in the big black car...

So this afternoon, my mom and I were standing at a traffic light [yeah I call them that these days – Robots seems so like backward! (*insert attitude-fueled head movement from side to side & vigorous finger wagging plus an annoying ear piercing twang*)]

We were at the corner of Outspan & Rivonia Road in Morningside and I had been thinking all day about how out of place I feel in this place. How awkward I feel with the values and beliefs I hold dear. Makes me feel like they are flimsy. Like my ideas about the real importance of money are absolutely outdated and unrealistic.

In this place there are so many big flashy cars, flashy shiny shoes, flashy hair weaves, big flashy houses, shiny-skinned girls, with shiny lips, with expensive taste in clothes, social settings and fat-walleted men. Oh, don’t forget the nails.

I feel awkward here.

I have the most busted out feet in the history of a woman. I dare you to look at them. Double dare you to touch them! And would pay you to massage them - its an invitation Seriously. And it’s because I actually do stuff with them. You know, like hiking, walking barefoot in & around the house, and I love outdoorsy things. You know, ordinary stuff. Point is I use my feet, for something either than getting them to look good. (Okay I have to admit, I should sort them out, but why really? What is the pressing reason?)

Recently I have been feeling quite inadequate. Asking myself why I have not accumulated much (of anything let alone wealth) after so many years of giving of myself and of my talents. Why am I still in a financial position that forces me to look at selling my beloved Ruby, so I can have some extra bucks. I work damn hard. Harder than most people I know but I just don’t see it in my lifestyle. Come the 15th I’m outta cash & stressing big time.

Anyway with this back drop in mind. Back to the story – my mom & I have just come to a stop at the red traffic light. As we approach I take extra notice of the car standing beside us. A big black jeep with a wealthy looking man smoking out of his car window, he’s wearing a black shirt & a pair of dark sunglasses. Handsome too.


I don’t realise it but I must have been noticeably analyzing him. He looks right back and says “Hi”, “Hi, how are you?” I reply slightly surprised (not typical Joburg behaviour, I think), “Good thanks” he replies. “How has your day been?” he asks, I take a deep sigh taking stock of what a hectic day I’ve just had (beginning with a missed flight from Cape Town & all of a sudden ,in an instant it feels crazy, that I find myself where I am) with a deep sigh I begin to answer ”Wow, ridiculously, hectically busy & tiring actually, yours?”, he shakes his head “It’s mad isn’t it? We run around so busy all the time”, “Yes, its crazy!” I retort, “Right now, I’d rather be on an island somewhere actually enjoying my day” he says, we both stop to absorb that fantasy. He continues “You know I’ve spent so much time running around, working hard to get all these things, and now I’ve got them and realise that I was happier as a 22 year old with no money” The robot turns green and we both have to drive off.

What a deep meaningful conversation.

In that one, short conversation at a traffic light in Morningside I get the reassurance I’m after. I am not on the wrong path at all. And, I don’t need all that flash & cash to be happy. I’m better off as I am. A 22 year old with not much at all, but having a helluva lot of great, fullfilng experiences. Cash or not.

A crap couple of weeks But sunshine still exists

I received this Quote Of The Day this morning and it sprung out to me so so relevant for what I've been experiencing lately.

"Life is tough, and if you have the ability to laugh at it you have the ability to enjoy it." Salma Hayek

The past few weeks have been rather rough on me. Rather shit to be exact. Where do I begin?

My car was towed away from my house without me realising that it was towed and not STOLEN. Yes I shed a tear or 2 (more like bucket load) only to realise that the car was stolen by the cops who didn't have the decency to leave me a note... It would have read something like this "Dear pretty young lady, your annoying snooty neighbours decided it was time to make your life more difficult and thought up a reason to do so, so they settled on this reason - there is a school down the road and in the mornings its difficult to get past your house - the 2cm over the pavement was just too much to bear so there, we're getting the cops to take your car"

So this has delayed my attempt to sell the car to my new found stalker - *William. He is obsessed with my car & will stop at nothing to buy it. Good for me I guess, but parting with Ruby to pay off debt is going to be hard - Imagine that? Selling you friend cos you're in a money rut. Sad. Except that (as much as I would love to believe this) she , Ruby that is, has no soul, no emotion, no feelings (it actually hurts to write this, because funny enough she would respond to my pleadings on a cold, rainy, misty Cape Town night stuck at on a busy intersection. A few rubs & "Come-on Ruby baby" would do the trick)

My lucky  passengers (lucky to be alive) soon learnt the tricks of the trade

On to my hard life tale, I have suddenly realised that I am in debt (not suicide enducing or anything, but debt nonetheless) and its starting to feel like I'm in a quick sand pit to nowhere. Its frustrating me. I got a phone call while at the Navy festival in Simonstown at 20:35 on a Friday evening to remind me to make payment on my account! What the fuck?

So now I cant even chill with my friends on a Friday night out & not be reminded of my ever looming dark cloud of debt. Great.

Then I had a fight with a former friend ( effective immideately - yes, it was that bad). What's upset me is not that I have lost her as a friend. Its how I lost her as a friend. That energy sucking leech. It was bound to happen, the relationship had run its at-first-rather-pleasant-and-fun-soon-thereafter-slightly-bumpy-most-times-turbulent-and-recently-downright-unpleasant course. It was time. 

What upset me was the fact that this individual, we'll car her *Grumpy (I wonder why this pseudonym) has these unbearable traits that she doesn't realise she has. One of being stubbornness. It makes it pretty hard to see and therefore change what is unpleasant about you to others. 

But that's her journey to undertake. I've learnt.

There is more on my shit week I shall divulge but the reality of deadlines, trips to johannesburg tomorrow morning with a flight ticket that is yet to materialise hang over me. I shall rant and rave later.