Lusito Land

"In its 24th year, Lusito Land, which began 2 wekks ago, is an 11-day festival celebrating all things Portuguese, including food, wine and entertainment. The affair, which will take place at Pioneer's Park, Wemmer Pan, promises a feast of entertainment wuth local Portuguese artists dazzling the crowd with Portuguese melodies and lively folk dancing. Lusito Land was first staged as a one-day fundraising fete in 1979 for the Lusito School, an institution run under the auspices of the Lusito Portuguese Association for the Mentally and Physically Handicapped. The school serves the needs of 65 children in the south of Johannesburg, and is entirely dependent on the funds raised by Lusito Land."

Well, that was an over-promise.

Mike, Clyde and I went to Lusito last Saturday (me for the first time) to watch the Parlotones play. The fleamarket section was pathetic - no Portuguese wares in sight - just Chinese imports. The place was FULL of pretos and mulatos... It was freezing cold, and I mean FREEZING. BUT, the saving grace was that the food was great, I had Caldo Verde, Mike had Giblets and Clyde had half a cow. Yes, 800g of Espetada *might* just be too much meat for one man to consume, let alone a family of 4. We even went on the ferris wheel, turns out I am developing a quesy stomach in my old age, I could hardly handle not being strapped into the ferris wheel! LOL

Mmmm.... caiparinhas.....


monster rooster...


the ferris wheel...


view from the ferris wheel...



Mike & I on the ferris wheel...

Bon Voyage Katie...

My bestest friend (and high school partner in crime) Kate is emmigrating with her family to the UK (well, I guess it isn't really emmigrating as they are all EU citizens) We went to the farewell party on Friday last week, it was great to see all our old school mates again (and we froze our butts off!)
I'M GONNA MISS YOU MY FRIEND!!!!

Kate & me...


Candice & JP...


Old school friends...

Jann's show at Emperor's

Last Wednesday night (the 25th) Mike and I were invited by my one of my friends Jann to attend the "Press Night" for her new show "Let's Party" at Emperor's Palace. Jann is a cabaret dancer and has danced since she was like 5, I met her in dancing class when I was a kid and we've been best mates ever since. If you are in Joburg, get to the Odeon Showbar and you won't be disappointed!

PS Sorry for the manic vampire eyes - i forgot the red-eye reduction...

Jann & me...


Jann & Mike...


Mike & me...

The dress disaster

As most of you know, I'm making my own wedding dress - crazy but true. The BEST part is that I bought all my supplies for a tenth of the price it would cost to buy the actual dress! Problem was that I wanted a dress in a beige-ish-off-white-oyster-champagne colour, and not the radiant white that the lace I bought came in. So, solution was to dye it. Easy? Yeah right. I bought dye at the local Dischem, it was called "Café au Lait" and was similar to the colour of antique pearls.... or so I thought... (would love to post the inspiration dress on here but can't cos Mike reads this blog)

What I wanted (kind of)...


What I got.... *gasp*



So... back to the drawing board... yesterday I bought some colour stripper, which worked pretty well last night, after which I re-tea-dyed the lace again... it came out MUCH better... tomorrow night I am going to re-dye it with coffee... it supposedly works better than tea... wish me luck (she says hoping this will all be worth it in the end...)

Stonehaven on Vaal

Yesterday we took a drive down to Stonehaven on Vaal to show Clyde (one of Michael's groomsmen) where we are going to be married in September. While there, Michael paid for the room I'll be staying in the night, as well as us both staying in the night of the wedding itself. Fortunately. we were allowed onto the boat "The Spirit of Jen" where the reception will be, so Clyde could see it (and we could see it again too). After all the wedding-oriented stuff, we met Cashandra, Gary, Kate, Sian, Nick, and Tamsin for lunch on the banks of the river. It was an awesome day!

Our Loft room at Stonehaven


The Lounge part...


The loo...


The view (so I can get ready and see guests arrive)...


The "Spirit of Jen"...


Inside the boat...


Inside the boat again...


The stairs up to the deck...


The toilets under the stairs...


The Deck...


The Captain's Cabin...


The deck from the Captain's cabin...


Tea will be served after the service in here...


Lunching at the River...

Our Anniversary

Saturday was Michael and my 3 year dating anniversary. We spent the day together shopping, having lunch and visiting his Mom. On Saturday night, Michael took me out for a surprise dinner at Cento Valle in Kensington - a really romantic Swiss-Italian restaurant. After dinner we went to movies to watch the last Hannibal movie, Hannibal rising. Pity it wasn't as good as the previous 3 movies in the series....but that didn't change the fact that we had an awesome day. Love you baby.

Mike in candlelight...


Me in candlelight...


The dinner that was...

Koller Wedding

Michael's good friend Nicolas got married this past Saturday to Vanessa (Michael's other friend George's sister). When we arrived at the church we found Clyde, the best man, sitting on a bench outside, writing his speech! Talk about procrastination! The groom, Nick, was looking very pale when he arrived at the church, but calmed down once he knew the bride had arrived. Their minister was hillarious, the church was beautiful and Vanessa glowed for the whole day. The reception was at the Portuguese club, which Vanessa's Dad runs. All in all we had a great time, besides the gippo's for the next 3 days because of the rich food... LOL

The bride and groom...


The cake centerpieces...


Artsy table decor shot sans flash...

my birthday cake

proudly made by tessa...

before...


after...

more bazley pics

Now this is the life...


The shul championship... yes, Sian won...


Details of the Bazley house....






*gasp* not the toe... anything bUT that ghastly toe!


Easter morning display....


Bazley beach...

The Bazley weekend

Mike, Sian, Gary, Tamsin, Yvette and I spent the long weekend at my parent's house in Bazley Beach, on the KwaZulu Natal Coast. We had a killer time, made some great memories, and had a tormenting road trip home. After leaving late, 10 hours on the road, a car threatening to stall and leave us stranded and a few stomach ulcers, we are all home safely.... and will DEFINITELY fly next time.

A easter montage courtesy of Tamsin (yep, I just stole this...)