3 hours till kick off

And folks at Lou's office can no longer contain themselves, looking decidedly Australian (ptooey! I said "AUSTRALIA", it was unintentional, I assure you) in their Bafana Bafana gear, the people at The Douglas Jones Collection show their patriotic spirit and effervescence on this historic day for SA.

Good luck, Bafana Bafana. You're most definitely gonna need it. But y'know, over here in Japan, I've been proudly wearing my SA lapel pin all day, in my own show of subdued (subdued only because multi-coloured face paint and bright yellow clothing would probably be frowned upon) support for The Boys.

And in Johannesburg...

Joburg seems to have gone a bit flag mad. My friend Rene thinks it's a bit overwhelming and too distracting to be fluttering away beside a busy highway. I tend to agree but it does have quite a visual impact.

These pics also courtesy of my girl on the scene, Lou-chan

Cape Town's World Cupness

According to my buddy, Lorinda, Cape Town is always slow on the uptake. She seems to feel that the Mother City's most recent contributions to World Cup madness, this (in my opinion) cool football fountain and lights which are very reminiscent of the Christmas lights which go up every year, are a bit random and may be too little... too late?

Pics courtesy of Lorinda



Then again, Cape Town did go to the impressive lengths to construct this massive vuvuzela, on the old unfinished bridge in the middle of the city. May as well put the most pointless bridge in the history of the world to good use.

These pics courtesy of Nuria

It's lekker bru! A user's guide to S.African lexicon

Source: Yahoo! News
Here's a newcomer's guide to some uniquely South African words and phrases for football fans heading to the month-long tournament.
- Howzit: A universal greeting, a short-form version of "How is it going?"
- Bru: Abbreviation of "brother" used to address friends and colleagues as in "Howzit bru?"
- Yebo: The Zulu word for Yes which is now used across the board.
- Sharp: A sign-off signalling an agreement as well as farewell, often said twice.
- Ag shame: An expression of sympathy or annoyance.
- Eish!: An exclamation expressing exasperation.
- Lekker: An Afrikaans word meaning superb or fantastic which is applied equally to a person, object or event.
- Braai: An originally Afrikaans word for barbecue, which often features a sizzling boerewors, a curled spiced sausage.
- Biltong: Dried meat -- usually beef but also from other animals as ostrich, antelope or buffalo -- which is eaten as a snack, often accompanied by a beer or glass of wine.
- Rooibos: Red bush tea, South Africa's unofficial national brew which is grown in the southwestern Cape region.
- Shebeens: Makeshift bars in the townships which sell often super strength homemade brews.
- Muti: A traditional tree or plant-based medicine. Its practitioners are known as nyangas.
- Sangoma: Traditional Zulu healers or sorcerers who often summon ancestral spirits to foretell the future.
- Townships: Black-only neighbourhoods under apartheid that were once mainly shantytowns but now include middle-class areas. The most famous is Soweto, short-form for SOuth WEst TOwnships, near Johannesburg.
- Jozi: The abbreviation for the largest city of Johannesburg which is also known as Joburg.
- Veld or Veldt: An Afrikaans words meaning shrubland, it now generally refers to the countryside as a whole.
- Robot: Traffic lights.

Flag envy...

... we all experience it sometimes.

Pepsi FIFA 2010 - Refresh Everything ad (Football world cup) Best Ad EVER!

FIFA World Cup 2010 Song by K'naan & David Bisbal (official video)

8 days to go before the Football WC opens in SA!

So the countdown begins here and now...

Natsukashi and y'know kinda kawaii

So I'm doing some spring cleaning when I found some farewell cards from my students at Niitsu High School. These are all about 4 years old and they're so cute... but there are also some hilariously random things in them that I thought I'd share.

• Girl: "Dear Natasha Thank you for everything!!" then some bits of paper pasted down and written in tiny print way at the bottom are these words: "In fact. I can't swim."
• Boy: "Natasha. I'll miss you. Please say hello to John. You must come back. Good bye. Take care." So... WHO THE HECK IS JOHN????
• Boy: "I'm poor at English. But I like English a few now. Thank you." So sweet.
• Girl: "Dear Natasha. I love English!! Thank you very much. I've really enjoyed the evening very much indeed (?????? - N). It was very nice talking with Ms Natasha! I love you. Good luck." That whole letter was so sweet but that little bit in the middle was so very...
  
• Boy: "Dear Natasha. Good bye. Please bring me a present when you come back. See you." Don't think he QUITE realised that I was leaving... forever. I keep thinking about him waiting and waiting for me to come back with his present. Oh the guilt.

I really, really loved my Niitsu students. Niitsu High and Bunsui High will always be my all-time favourite schools. Great students and fantastic teachers.

Aaaaaaaawwwwwww!

So Tomo-kun is a cool boy, he puts up this front of toughness for all to see. He does up his name card all sparkly like and looks extra kewl cos of it... he's a 2nd grade 中学生 kid.

BUT... on the inside of this kewl, awesome name card (where his buddies can't see it) is the following super secret message written in the tiniest print ever... which just MELTED my heart. MELTED it I tell ya... into a puddle of chocolatey goo.

Bless his darling little heart for totally making my month!

Freshlyground - "Pot Belly" Music Video

I loveloveLOVE this song!! And the video is super cute. Zolani has the most amazing voice. She sings so effortlessly.

SHOUT SA

Let's make SA a better, safer country for all!

Nagaoka winter. Shudder

Now as all y'all know, I'm not one for the cold and snow, which is why it's kind of ironic that I'm playing the snow queen (or yuki onna) in this year's musical. Worse than that, we're also experiencing Nagaoka's worst snow in 27 years. Oh joy. Some pics for your delight... cheers.

Kinders van die wind

Takes me way, way, waaaaaaaaaaaaay back. Beautiful song.

Another classic Sound Effects!

So funny...

Madam and Eve - SABC

Good times in Ojiya

Some pics (and a vid) from the Ojiya Summer Festival in August, Steve's birthday and Diet Challenge BBQ...

Escape from work camp

I've been watching a lot of WLIIA clips on youtube... and I love Sound Effects and Scenes from a hat... but this frikken clip had me laughing so much I literally had tears streaming down my face. That good laugh when you feel like you're going to bust a gut or something... great stuff! I love Ryan and Colin. They were always my faves.

Eish Wena!

Firsts

First surgery : Tonsilectomy
First piercing : Ears
First best friend : Liesl Williams (for one year, then Annabelle for the rest of my years)
First sport you joined : Softball club
First pet : Dog of course (Sheba)
First vacation : Beaufort West with Auntie V. I (allegedly) cried the entire time "I want my MOMMMYYYY"
First concert : Some church christmas gig.
First crush : I can't remember (yes that's a lie)
Very FIRST memory? : Secretly running to the stoep to spit out the cough medicine my granny gave, moments before Mom brought Nathan (the interloper) home for the first time.
First person you had a fight with?: Carol something or the other (she wanted to meet me behind the girls' toilets and donner me. Yikes. I ran away)
First time you rode a bike?: My BMX Mongoose... Yissus that was a cool bike.
First car: ... a bus
First person you slow danced with: I honestly cannot remember his name. Tall dude, dark... wore glasses.
If your house was on fire, first thing you'd grab?: In SA - my dog. In Japan - my laptop (and passport)
First Movie You Saw: I think it was something with flying piranhas in it. Thereby starting my lifelong love of b-grade horror movies
First time you were afraid: I was petrified...
First song you remember listening to: Probably a Queen song. Maybe Bohemian Rhapsody. Queen was/is ALWAYS on at our house.
First thing you'd do with 5 million dollars: Buy Mom a new house. Then travel.
First thing you notice when you look in the mirror?: Any new weight gain
First impression of your bf/gf?: Have no current S/O