This revelation was announced one night over Jasmine Tea at a Chinese restaurant in Sea Point…

A few weeks ago I joined my Llama Lladies in celebrating Jan’s birthday. (The name was inspired by our llove of the llama song, in case you were wandering). And what a night it was!

We had a group of Irish tourists, about our age, at a table nearby and joked about getting their attention… Which Mic did by laughing so hard she tipped over in her chair! We, as good friends, laughed with her

On a serious note, she was perfectly fine and even asked why we didn’t catch it on camera HaHa. Stronj’!!

After a great meal and good company, it was time to settle down with some Jasmine tea and fortune cookies… Of which mine was the MOST exciting one ever! Seriously… “Honesty is the best policy”. I know, Earth shattering stuff…

As a result Van offered to share her fortune with me. We split it right down the middle and so I read out my section, ” Time of joy and hap”. I then asked her to read out her section…

“Piness” she said very loudly before we erupted into laughter, and then a bit softer “is right here” which produced even more laughter! It had split right between the P’s… When put together, the original, full message was quite a nice fitting one actually: ”Time of joy and happiness is right here”

And it really was

Or rather the weatherman..

Has anyone else noticed the unusual weatherman for ETV news? With his Dutch surname but American accent, he leaves one wandering about where he came from. Ex-pat who’s come home? Is he a member of the “foreign exchange weatherman” programme? 

Regardless of where he comes from, I actually enjoy watching him. He’s energetic and expressive, without being cheesy, cough SABC weather cough. He also seems to actually know what he’s talking about and gives lots of info and not just the highs and lows. He’s not too bad on the eyes either Also, I must say I find it fascinating listening to his pronunciation of the harder SA names. Such as Mpumalanga and Vereniging. It sort of reminds me of the voice that reads SMS’s sent to landline numbers…

Well that’s all I wanted to say Been quite buy with varsity deadlines (2months till its all over!) so have neglected my blogging duties… But there’ll be a longer post next week about attending the SA Comedy Awards with Jeremy. Been too busy to do proper write up and don’t want to spoil any jokes for those watching it this Saturday evening on SABC 2.

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

OK, so I promised to add some pics of my trolley and I keep my word. So here they are

I decided to show some of the stages of development too, from concept to completion.

As I’ve mentioned, the inspiration came from a pea pod. This idea struck me whilst having some homemade veg soup, which my mom makes to perfection

I then looked at some images and this one stuck with me. There is a central “spine” that the peas are attached to, this formation is what I used for the top tray, which serves as wine bottle and glass rack.

I had the 3 trays made out of MDF board that were then sprayed a really dark brown. I also had the template I designed for the bottles and glasses cut out of the top one.

Then all the steel work of the frame needed to be done. I went out to a steel factory out in the industrial area. The guy in the office was so helpful (which was great for a change) and got the steel cut and ready for the next day. I then took it all to my friend Mic’s varsity, where it was put together with amazing help from her and Charlie. (He’s been helping students in the workroom for the last 20 years! And without him it may still be lying in pieces…) 

After all the drilling and welding, with additional fixing done with dad’s help, it was time to give my trolley a bit of a makeover. After a few cans or spray paint and help from my mom… ”sweatpea” was ready to face the world! And my lecturers…

I will let you guys know what their final verdict is, but I love her Hope you do too!

So today I feel terrible… I’m horribly sleep deprived, so listless and not really motivated to do much more than write this really

I was up till 3am putting together final touches on my trolley and then going on the long drive to bring it to my varsity.

OK, little background to the trolley story. Every year we have to design and produce a prototype. First year we had to make a lamp, second year a storage unit, and this year it’s a serving trolley (we were less than thrilled at this announcement). It had to be able to work as a server for wine, food, desserts and so on, as well as a side table in a room whilst stationary.

After much talk about concepts with our one lecturer, I started thinking about what holds things in nature? And I started playing with the ideas of pods, a pea pod in particular. After a while I had a design and was ready to begin looking for someone to make it. I had managed the other two with the help of my folks, but this new one was on a slightly larger scale…

There were two main components, timber elements and a steel framework. A contact I’d made during my internship did all the wood work for me and in no time at all, but every steel guy gave me the same line “too busy and the project is too small”.

So with help from family and some friends, I ended up putting the thing together myself, again… There are a couple of things that didn’t quite go as planned, but on a whole I love her  (yes she is female as she has lovely curves). I’ll try and upload some of the pictures I took when I get home later.

But for now the point of the story is that I’m relieved that it’s done, but beyond tired today! Luckily I’m breaking routine to go have lunch with my dad in the sun

Another thing about me is that I LOVE summer! I’m a Feb baby and therefore have it in my blood I reckon. My pale skin may not always like the sun, but my mood sure does!

So this is my first official blog post… You can read a little bit about me on the “Who Is Janel Anyway” page. 

As I’ve explained there, this blogging thing is kind of new to me. I read blogs all the time, but with a little nudge and advice from my boyfriend, I decided it was time to start my own.

This is a very short post for now, as I need to get back to spray painting a serving trolley (which will probably be the topic of my next, longer post)…

Hope your Monday’s been good so far