That Blog

So, I have come to realise that there are actually those that are not quite as fortunate as I am…i.e. they will not be doing their shopping on Regent’s Street this weekend and instead will be trawling the malls of Sunny South Africa for their retail therapy. If you are one of those less fortunate peeps and happen to be living in Jozi…there is a little treat install for you that should make your feel a little better about your lot in life. The International Fashion Sale is on again at the Coca Cola Dome from the 29th of July to the 1st of August. Admittedly, the Northgate is not as well known as the fashion and shopping meccas of London, New York, Rome and Paris…but it doesn’t mean that there aren’t a whole heap of new brands and exciting purchases to be made. So…if you are looking for somewhere to spend your hard earned loot this weekend, why not make your way to the Dome.

I did spot this picture advertising the sale and have only one thing to say…even if you are young, gorgeous, have a good bod and are wearing precious little…you still cannot get away with wearing black shoes and white socks EVER!!!

Fashion Help Needed too...

Anyway, hopefully, if you spot this young man, please will take him under your wing at the Fashion Sale and help him out a bit…

To read up for on the sale check out their website www.internationalfashionsale.co.za

So, a little bird tells me that it is all happening at the Big Pink thing behing the Labia…you know…the Mount Nelson!

Yip, the legendary restaurant, Cape Colony , will be closing at the end of July, and something brand new and VERY exciting shall open in its place on 1 November 2010. They will be doing an overhaul of the original dining hall and turning it into something slick and stylish…hope someone makes me slick and stylish when I am over 100 years old!!

Anyway, the Executive Chef Rudi Liebenberg and his team of specialist chefs are in the process of testing recipes which will form the basis of the new restaurant menu, and the hotel’s Food and Beverage team is compiling a new wine list to complement it.  This sounds very exciting and I certainly hope that the barren manscape has changed to feature a few suitors that might like to entertain me at the Cape Colony!!

Don’t forget that the Winter Special of a 5 Course meal for R200 per person is still running at the Cape Colony until the end of July…so get there quickly before the overhaul begins!!

Visit the website http://www.mountnelson.co.za/web/ocap/cape_colony_restaurant.jsp for more information.

Shy Armani Potgieter realises that a tough life lies ahead

Well, whilst paging through that spectacular display of British journalism known as the Metro on the way to work this morning, a rather entertaining article caught my eye.

A while back we spoke about the impact that Vampires are having on naming trends of children and may have been chuckled at people naming their children after said Vampires…well, I have to say that I would bank one of those Vampire names ANY DAY compared to some of the other options that people seem to be going for these days.

I can’t even begin to understand why you would want to call your child Puppy and have to say that you are really setting your child up for something if you call them Shy (referring to their name rather than their disposition). These are just some of the unusual names parents have given their children over the past ten years.

Other very unusual choices include celebrity names such as Rooney, Bowie and Cobain, along with hippy-style names such as Stone, Gift, Heaven and Echo and fashion names such as Denim, Diesel and Armani.

‘It’s great to see parents being creative and wanting their children to stand out from the crowd with more unusual names but there are a few here that children may find hard to live up to!’ said Faye Mingo, of www.Bounty.com.

‘Parents need to think carefully about everything that comes attached to an unusual moniker as it can definitely shape a child’s experiences at school and beyond.’

One in three of the 3,000 parents polled by Bounty said their offspring had an unusual name, but more than one in ten regretted their decision. Awesome…imagine your parents being interviewed and saying they regret the name they chose for you…that has to have some impact on your psychological well being!!

One in ten say their child doesn’t like their name, and 14 per cent of the children have asked to change it.

The poll also shows that three out of four parents who gave their child a traditional name believe children with wacky monikers are more likely to be bullied.

Top 20 most unusual names

Sensational isn’t it?? What ever happened to good old fashioned names?

[Source: www.metro.co.uk]

A failed Britain’s Got Talent contestant is suing the show for £2.5million and accused the makers of not putting up clips of her singing ‘beautifully’ on their website.

She has even been quoted as saying ‘I do have the ability to move people. People have cried when they have heard me sing.’ I think maybe you should judge for yourselves…

The former nurse claims the show erred by failing to take into account a medical condition she says affected her performance. She says she suffers from cervical spine neuritis which can affect hearing. Symptoms include head and shoulder pain and and can mean that suffers may not be able to hear their own voice in noisy environments.

Since the whole event took place, she said: ‘My health and wellbeing has been damaged. I have been going downhill quite markedly this year.’ And despite having once built up a reputation as a singer at charity events, she added: ‘Last year I had no phone calls at all.’

Mmmm…after watching that video, I would be interested to hear just how popular she was at charity events…

[Source: www.dailymail.co.uk]

Dedicated That Blogger fans, I owe you a massive apology!! I assure you that whilst I have not been writing to you daily, it does not mean I haven’t been thinking of you loads!!

I am still here on the Not So Muddy Island and still loving it. Unfortuantely I have been spending my weeks working, but have definitely made the most of the weekends!! I have been shopping up a storm, dining at fine restaurants and enjoying the best of English summer. Although, am nervous to say that my phone has been ringing about as often as Big Ben chimes…not from friends and family phoning for a chat, nope…Standard Bank card division are fairly convinced that my credit card has been stolen and being frantically abused by a deranged shopper in London. Despite my persistent assurances otherwise, they still seem to think it necessary to call for a chat whenever a new flurry of shopping starts up…bless, only my best interests at heart!! But really…the sales are on and what is a girl to do but make the most of it!!

As yet, my return date to Wintery SA has not been confirmed, but I can say that it is pretty likely that my luggage scenario may look a little like the Rooney family returning from their holiday in Barbados!!!

A flurry of porters off load the Rooney loot

One x Massive white van and a series of porters required to transport all the luggage. I fear that even with the expanda zip and the fact that my numerous pairs of new shoes are all very small…it is going to be a tight squeeze!

Will keep you posted on how that goes. Perhaps I should alert the kind soul collecting me from the airport that they should start recruiting for porters!

Please send news from Sunny SA! I miss you all terribly!

Hiya (I have picked that up since I got here…not quite the same ring as “Howzit”). How you all doing back in SA? I hope you have all been Keeping the Flags flying and none of you have been plunged into post-World Cup Depression. What is life like after the World Cup? I miss it terribly!!!

Well, the first few days in Londontown have been fab. I arrived on Saturday and navigated myself to the little South African enclave known as Putney. The sun was shining and I could have sworn that Putney High Street was the direct route to the beach. The girls were wearing very little and bikini’s tops seem to have taken over as the underwear of choice for summer!! I felt decidedly overdressed in my t-shirt and shorts!!

It would appear that my initial referrals to the Mud Island are somewhat misplaced…this place looks like it hasn’t had a drop of rain in months. The normally lush green parks look something like what I recall school hockey fields looking like in mid-winter!! Unbelievable!!!

So far, all has been good…I have learnt to very important lessons early on and hopefully not too many more to come

1) Don’t wear high heel shoes to walk anywhere other than in the office. Nobody else does and if you do, you WILL be in a WORLD of pain. We are not trained to cover such distances in high heels back home and boy do you feel it!!!

2) Do not leave home without an umbrella. Even though the place looks like it hasn’t seen a drop of rain since the Reign of Henry the 8th, that is a misnomer and it WILL rain on your walk to/from the office/tube station. Hair + rain = disaster.

Hoping to hit some sales this weekend…so will report on High Street fashion and attempts at Celeb spotting!!

Miss ya!!

Well That Blog fans, after the long and sad farewells of last week…I encountered what can only be described as a bureaucratic nightmare of note that involved me having to re-apply for my visa and spend a week milling about Jozi waiting for visa app #2 to be approved. Lesson learnt…submit AS MUCH info as possible with a visa application. If there is even a glimmer of a doubt that you will ever return back to sunny SA, you won’t get that visa and that is a lesson I learnt the hard way. It seems that despite my Proudly South African beliefs, the authorities seemed to think that I was a likely candidate to hit the Mud Island, grow roots and start claiming benefits. Anyway, I have persuaded them otherwise and I set sail or should I say, take off tonight.

Anyway…in my abscence, I would like to ask a very big favour of you…please don’t forget the amazing atmosphere that has built up in this country over the last month of fantastic football. If you need any help remembering how the World Cup has inspired us…check out this great website www.keepflying.co.za 

I don’t want to hear stories of post-tournament depression and general sadness…we have accomplished SO much as a country in the last month and you can’t just let that be forgotten on 12 July. Keep those flags on your car/house/wall. Keep those wing mirror covers there and keep that spirit going!!

KEEP IT FLYING!!!

So, I told you yesterday that Betty Windsor was headed Stateside…yip, obviously inspired by the recent Sex and the City 2 movie, Bettie and Phil decided it was time to hit the Big Apple and see how things had changed since their last visit in 1976.

On the off chance that any New York residents were faced with HRH and weren’t sure what to do or how to behave, the New York Daily News offered its readers a quick etiquette guide. They were advised not to mention the Duchess of York, to stick to small talk about dogs or horses, and reminded: ‘Don’t offer a handshake, a fistbump or a high five.’

Brilliant!! I would just love to see the average New Yorker trying to High Five or fistbump HRH!! I think the line that might be used is “We are not amused…”

[Source: The Daily Mail]

I have often seen the ad on the home shopping network for The Bedazzler and wondered whether anyone had ever bought one and if so, whether they used it…now I see that they do.

Betty Windsor is currently on tour of Canada and the US of A and decided that why go buy a new frock when you can just bedazzle up and old one. 

She first wore this frock to a State dinner in Trinidad and Tobago…and to give it a bit of an island feel, she got her peeps to pretty it up by embroidering it  with appliqué birds and flowers…nice touch don’t you think? 

Betty goes with a subtle island vibe

Then, when wondering what to wear to a banquet during her trip to Canada…Betty did what all street-wise girls would do…save money for shopping and sight-seeing on the trip by breathing new life into an old frock. Yip, Betty got her peeps busy again and this time they were to unpick the island feel (not really appropriate for Toronto) and get busy with the Bedazzler. What a stroke of genius…a fortune freed up for shopping and perhaps some pressies for friends and family back home and maybe even be able to catch a show on Broadway! Nice one Betty!! 

Betty bedazzled to the Max

 So, for a little close up view of what she did there… 

The Island Vibe

Unpick that embroidery, bring on the Bedazzler and look what you get… 

Swap Island-vibe for a bit of Bling...

Good work Betty!!

[Source: The Daily Mail]

Happy Friday to all of you!!! Hope the week has not been too brutal and the slow weaning process from the mania of Soccer World Cup 2010 has been alright for you. I have to say that I was left at a bit of a loss as what to do with my evenings when I had free TV viewing time between 4:30 and 10:30pm! What did we do in the evenings before SWC? I guess it is a bit like the question “What did we do before cellphones?” The answer…we didn’t know any better and so just managed!!!

Why have I stuck a random picture of Picadilly Circus in this post you may well ask?? Well, as the heading of this article suggests…That Blogger is going on an adventure. After a brief work hiatus, I am venturing back into the world of gainful employment (am very sad to say that blogging is not quite paying the rent) and in a brilliant turn of events, my gainful employment (more…)

Perhaps this is why so many of the big teams of fallen by the wayside…they came to our shores expecting the landscape to look like this and our pitches to work in a similar way! Mmm…they were in for a bit of a surprise weren’t they?? In fact, of the big name stars in this advert, I think only two of them is still hanging around for the Quarter Finals…the rest of have already had the opportunity to experience the brand new departures terminals at our beautiful airports first hand.

Anyway, I still love this advert and am still fuelled by the “Gees” of Soccer World Cup 2010 Africa Style!!

[Thanks The Bruv]

Way back in the early days of That Blog, I gave you the heads-up about an awesome new on-line shopping site that was about to launch in sunny SA…do you remember? Or maybe it was before your time. Anyway, click here for a little refresher…

So…that amazing new on-line shopping site has now launched and there are some pretty exciting things going on there. It is called Twangoo and it is a really interesting approach to buying services and stuff on-line

Let me give you a quick run down of how things work there…the clever blokes at Twangoo have been frantically sourcing deals from loads of different shops and service providers. They will then run a deals for 24 or 48 hours…you will read about it on their site or if you follow them on twitter or facebook. If you like the deal, you will sign up for it…you then need to persuade your mates to sign up for the deal too. The reason for this, is that every deal has a critical tipping point and so only kicks in when a certain amount of people have signed up to it…so if it is something you really like, you need to make sure it hits the tipping point. Pretty cool idea isn’t it??

The launch special is a pretty awesome one…basically, if the deal hits tipping point and you have signed up for it, you can get 3 of the following spa treatments at Suntra Spa 15 on Orange Hotel for just R670.00

• massage,
• scalp therapy,
• reflexology,
• facial,
• body polish,
• Guinot technispa slimming / firming treatment,
• pedicure or manicure

Have you been for a spa treatment recently? If you have, you will know that this is a VERY good price for 3 treatments!! Imagine…total pampering for 2.5 hours. WHAT BLISS!!! This is such good value, why don’t you treat your Mum or even your best friend to this amazing experience

So…all you need to do is head to Twangoo and sign up for the deal and then get your girl posse to do the same…the deal tips and hey presto, everyone’s a winner!!!

Happy shopping Gals!!