Tuesday, April 15, 2008

The new home of publicaddress:


Exciting times indeed, peopz!
Last Friday was when we chose to pack up all our shizz and head off to our brand spanking new offices at Holwood Park, Umhlanga Ridge. I've never been happier and prouder than when we steeped into the door and saw our new place for the first time. So of course I totally did The Chick Thing and blubbed. Heh heh heh...
My spot is the one next to the window (the empty chair in the pic). I chose it especially so that I could gaze out the window and daydream when nobody's looking... *happy sigh*
It's been a whirlwind couple of days buying all the stuff we need and doing a lot of the final handyman stuff ourselves. The entire gang was here 'til 2am on Friday night pretending to work, shouting above the music blaring out of our new surround sound system, laughing, drinking whiskey, scoffing pizza and thinking back on how far we've come...
Yeah... The times they are a-changin' for publicaddress: and for me.
Watch this space for pics of the new place I'll be moving into at the end of May! I can't wait. It's more than I could have ever hoped to find for the money that I wanted to spend. And the people who own it are FABULOUS!
PLUS I'm transferring to the posh Gateway gym so that I'm closer to my office. Well... At least, that's the excuse I'm sticking to: I need to move to the posh gym to be closer to work... (Double heh heh heh!)
I'm gonna miss little Amber the pup and Ella (one of the director's 3-year old princess daughters) at the old office and I'll definitely miss my Beena at home, but after the giant lizard she left me last night, that scuttled over my toes at 5.30am this morning, I think weekend visits to my folks place to see her will be MORE than I can handle. Let's just say that if the pounding on its head with my shoe didn't kill it, then my screams most definitely gave it a serious, fatal heart attack!
Ag, Beena! My fuzzy angel.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Meet my new friend!



Everyone, please choon a lekker howzit to my new china, Amber.
She lives with the peops that we're renting our offices from and she's the cutest thing on four legs... Besides my Beena, of course!



Amber smaaks:
- Cuddling
- Nibbling on toes
- Missioning around the backyard (nose to the ground)
- Hiding under my long skirts
- Slurping water from her bowl

Amber choons "No way, bro!" to:
- Bella (the other, older dog of the house)
- Being confined to a safe space when she's left alone
- Night time
- Being locked out of our office (especially when she can check us through the glass doors)
- Stopping when she's had enough chow



Puppies are just too precious! I don't really know what she's going to grow up to be, ie. what "kind" of dog. But then, I prefer not to put race / breed / colour / creed / species / etc labels onto anyone anyway. It just takes us back ±20 years in this country. Amber can be whatever the heck she wants to be! 'Cos I she's a liberated chick! Just like me...

You mean this shizz actually HAPPENS??!!


So... there I was enjoying a cup of coffee with Best Boy during a daytime load shedding power failure in our hood, when out of the blue comes two cops to order... wait for it... a bunch of DONUTS and some coffee! They stood outside enjoying their snack, while I stared, open-mouthed! Cops?! Hanging out at the donut shop??!!
Come on!
I thought that shizz only happened in movies!
By the time Best Boy and I were ready to leave, at least 2 more cop cars pulled up for the same order. Must be their local haunt or something.
Classic.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Pimp my ride, beyotch!!!



So... Here's how it all went down.
On Tuesday night, I headed off to our weekly church home group meeting with Best Boy (*giggle*) and a family from the DRC that are in our group and that we give a lift to every week. We decided to use my car, seeing as there's more room for the guys in the back, and I was parked closest to the gate. Cool! First Best Boy and I stop to pick up the Danzala's (I think that's how you spell it) in a busy Berea street. We wait patiently for the guys to come out - they've only just come back from work and need to freshen up - only to be yelled at by some irate taxi driver who thinks I'm deliberately blocking the street for no good reason. Clearly, that's how I get my kicks, right? Sigh. Well! We eventually head off to home group not even 10kms away, everyone gets out the car so that I can park in the narrow little Morningside street, and I proceed to do my thing... Only to brush the curb / a stone / a nail somewhere and totally puncture my front left tyre. Double sigh. Much to my embarrassment and mortification, the entire home group meeting had to be scrapped so that the exhausted men could change the tyre by the light of the moon while the ladies sat inside sipping on coffee and talking about babies. Big giant sigh. (At this point I must stop to thank Best Boy, our home group leader and our mate from the DRC for not only changing the tyre, but machine-polishing out the nasty scratches I've managed to accumulate over the past month or so... See? There ARE a few good men left in this world!!!)
So the next morning, gym took the day off so that I could race to Tiger Wheel & Tyre to get the puncture fixed. Of course, my dad gave me a full briefing before I left...
1. Don't pay more than ±R25 to R50 for a repair.
2. If they can't repair it, get them to find a second hand tyre for you.
3. Don't pay more than R200 for the second hand tyre.
4. Make sure that they match the tyre to the others already on the car or else the alignment and balancing will go wonky. (NB: "Wonky" is a highly technical mechanical engineering term that will take me AGES to explain, so just trust me that "wonky" = "very bad"!)
5. WAIT THERE while they repair/replace the tyre. It's DANGEROUS driving around on the narrow little spare tyre (or Marie Biscuit) that comes with the car.
Sheesh.
To cut a long story short... I got there only to discover that my car's two front tyres were in dangerous condition and urgently needed to be replaced. They couldn't just fix the punctured one anyway. (Cha-ching!) What was supposed to cost no more than R200 is now looking more like R1200. I think, fine! Tyres are a grudge purchase. I'm not gonna love forking out the dosh, but I need them so whatever! I have 2 new tyres fitted... But... While I'm paying at the cashier, I notice the really nice mags displayed on the wall and casually ask what they go for...
Carmen: ... you know ... I've been wanting to get rid of the crappy hub caps on my car for ages... these mags look cool, hey? but I'm sure they're expensive, right?
(Carmen silently prays: Please God, let them be so ridiculously expensive that I don't buy them? PLEASE??!!)
Tyre Man: Well... As luck would have it, we had a special on this weekend, and these particular mags (he points to a lovely set on the wall) were going for ±30% OFF... it's a really good deal... the special is over but I'm sure I can get them to give them to you for the special price... yes?
(Cha-ching! Cha-ching!!!!)
Carmen: ... erm... eish... I'll take them!!!!
And that's the story of how my car got some new stilettos.
I love them! The car even feels faster and smoother, even though I know it's all in my head!