indieBerries

i wantist.

2012-03-16T13:33:00.000+09:00

i love gift-giving when you already have a good idea of what to get for the giftee (yeah, i made that word up) but it can be really tough when you are trying to buy a gift with absolutely no idea what to get. (boys are the MOST DIFFICULT). I recently came across this fabulous gift-idea site - Wantist. it's filled with all kinds of funny, awesome, quirky and unique gifts - I could spend hours on this site. They also have a killer blog. A few random gifting-gems:

Pat the husband book. lol.

For your drunkie friends.

For important things.

You will never eat the dog's food again.

Defs getting one of these for my future bebe.

happy wedding day

2012-03-14T13:56:00.000+09:00

A few snaps of a wedding card/mini guest-scrapbook I made for Clare and Bokkie's wedding. i included a whole bunch of different textured pages, photographs, tape, fabrics and quotes. The booklet had plenty of empty lined spaces for guests to write messages to the newlyweds and I made sure it also had a few pockets in the booklet so that they could slip in some photographs from their big day.

if only...

2012-03-13T13:59:00.000+09:00

air hair lair.

2012-03-12T23:35:00.000+09:00

i got me some new hair on the weekend. this picture makes my hair look green. it's not. it's just photobucket being awesome.

Remember this?

Yeah. I remember.

Having a hairdresser in South Africa that speaks english?

What a treat.

ps. haha this blog title - when i was younger my uncle teased me about how we said "hello" at our fancy high school - "air. hair. lair" You'll figure it out :P

7 things Sunday

2012-03-11T15:21:00.001+09:00

(above: trapped in a cave during a thunderstorm.)

the paddocks

above: post thunderstorm rainbow

all pics taken at Oaklands Country Manor.

7 things I've eaten this week:

Brocoli, bacon and cashew-nut salad. delish.
Mom's rusks and coffee every morning
WAY too many smarties
Peanut butter and bacon sandwich. (The dad's idea)
Piece of chocolate cake for one of the kids birthday's at school
Green leafy salad, with lettuce leaves, peppers, carrots and tomatoes from out our garden
Apple and nut muffin

i miss Asia

2012-03-09T13:53:00.000+09:00

Dear Asia,

I miss you

Love

Che

WKD

2012-03-08T13:47:00.000+09:00

a few random WKD snaps - we spent Saturday scouring the Essenwood flea market in Durban - i LOVE all the craftiness lurking in those stalls. Feasted on a delicious avo, pepperdew and feta breakkie with hummus and something else delicious that I don't know how to spell or pronounce. On Sunday, the fam took a slow drive in the rain on the Midlands Meander and stopped off at The Bierfassl for Sunday lunch including rainy-day GnT's and sampling of the Bierfassl home brews. If you're ever in Natal, the Midlands is a must.

ha. I've been prac teaching for too long. This post sounds like a grade two "weekend news" entry. Remember those? lol.

neeeeed.

2012-03-07T13:51:00.000+09:00

Coffee is pretty much a staple in my life. I'm so very lucky to be home and have such a lovely dad who brings me a "wake up" coffee and rusk in bed every morning. The coffee is delicious but it doesn't help the "wake up" process very much. ha. In the world of Che, coffee-ism is divided into a number of categories with corresponding consumers. Allow me:

guy. you don't even like espresso, you just wanna be cool.

the real deal connoisseur. also probably gay.

aah. coffee dates = awkward.

NO.

in case that wasn't clear, I am not a morning person. Every morning i ~~wake up~~ sloth my way out of my (toasty warm and cozy) bed with scratchy red eyes (still closed/glued together with nightly-fairy-eye-glue), shadow eyebags, untamable ratty-wild hair and drool infested pillow-cases. but enough about sexy little me, let's drink to coffee. VIVA!

Fun DIY for making your own coffee syrups from A Beautiful Mess

Cool 'coffee types' art print from blimpcat on Etsy

Pics of coffee (and all things delicious and breakfast) on BKFST

An awesome repurposed/distressed coffee table from MrsRekampip on Etsy

Cute little coffee warmer from LittleGBoutique on Etsy

meet me for a cuppa?

pretty pinboards

2012-03-06T14:01:00.000+09:00

A few weekends ago I decided to make a pretty pinboard for my new studio/craft-room/free-pass mess-zone. I invited the cousin over to come and make one with me too. Here's how it went down...

First we got two big pieces of chipboard from the hardware store. Then laid out some plastic sheeting at home - and put the boards on tin cans so that we could paint it easily.

(this picture is really orange. I don't know what i was thinking.)

Next we painted the boards with a cream coloured base coat. We used Acrysilk Pastel base coat.

I wanted the boards to have a vintage-layered type vibe- so we cut-up, tore-out and mashed up old books, scrapbook papers, dictionaries, doilies and old maps. We laid all the scraps onto our boards until it was all covered and we were happy with the layout.

Once we were happy with each of our boards we used a watered down wood glue as a replacement for mod podge to glue everything onto the boards. The watered down glue works just fine - make sure that your mixture of water to glue is thin enough to be easily spreadable, but not so thin so that you are only painting water onto your board. Once everything was stuck down we painted the entire board with a new layer of the glue solution.

(we mixed it in the yoghurt tub. we didn't actually paint yoghurt on. in case anyone was wondering.)

While we were waiting for the glue to dry we started making newspaper roses for the boarder-frame of our pinboards. Start by cutting long strips of newspaper as above. Next take two long strips and glue them together to make one very long strip - like below:

Once you have a long newspaper strip, fold it in half lengthways. Then fold each side into the centre and fold it in half again, so that you have the same length of newspaper but it is double reinforced.

The next step is to take the length of newspaper and starting from one end scrunch/pinch it together a little and then start rolling the newspaper around itself keeping it flat. Every so often carefully twist the newspaper around so that it creates a fold in your flower and keep going. I found that I didn't really need any glue at all while I was rolling up the roses because the newspaper is thick enough to hold itself together. Once the rose is complete (ie the newspaper strip has come to an end) then you can use some glue water solution just to dab into the rose to help hold it all in place. When the glue has dried you can paint them -

The roses actually look really pretty when you leave a little bit of the newspaper showing through and help to give a little bit of depth.

Next we used neat glue to stick the roses onto the pinboard as a frame.

et voila!

The pinboard above is my cousins, which should hopefully be hanging up in her room by now! :)

silica

2012-03-05T13:36:00.000+09:00

Sometimes you open your new box of shoes and you come across those tiny little bags of gel-ish beads called Silica. On the Silica bags there is always a very big and prominent "DO NOT EAT" label hacked up all over it like so:

not me.

7 things

2012-03-04T17:56:00.000+09:00

Rain is a wonderful glorious thing. We are supposed to be having an epic Cyclone hit KZN today, but so far it's just been lovely rain.
Flea markets are a fabulous way of spending your day. Meeting new creative and crafty people and sourcing precious gems. We didn't get a chance to get to the i heart market yesterday, but we did spend a great part of the day at the Essenwood flea market in Durbs.
Dreams. What a way to mess with your mind.
10 year old kids really are very cute.
Teaching 10 year old kids the concept of scientific properties of matter and atomic particles is really not very cute.
South Korean internet is like an Olympic Sprint Gold Medalist compared to South African snail-web.
Some words just have the most epic sounds like cellar, squelch, precipice, smooch and slither.

Newspaper is pretty too

2012-03-02T22:32:00.000+09:00

A few gifts that I wrapped for my family using Korean newspaper and fabric ribbons. Fast, easy, cost-effective, eco-friendly and according to indieBerries - uber trendy.

I made a few of the gifts a 'reverse' by wrapping them in pink gift wrap and making newspaper bows by cutting a piece of newspaper into a long strip and securing it in the middle with coloured tape.

lomo london

2012-03-01T13:30:00.000+09:00

I've had a few more lomo films from London developed and actually after doing the "What's in my bag" post I discovered a few more lomo films that I haven't developed yet - (awesome!) Anyway four lomo pics from London town -

Taken in Soho near to Zebrano bar.
Zebrano bar. that name makes me wanna say it over a few times. Zebrano. Zebrano. (yeah - i told you!)

Outside The Wandle in Earlsfield.

The Wandle serves delicious Rekorderlig - Strawberry and Lime ciders.

Possibly the greatest thing that will ever gush down your gullet.

En route to the Tate Modern. Red Double Decker bus. MUST. SNAP. PIC.

(even though it was raining. and i had no umbrella. gotta GET. THAT. BUS.)

Featured

2012-02-29T13:34:00.000+09:00

indieBerries was featured in the September 2011 issue of Seventeen Magazine for a DIY Magic craft supplement. Since I have been overseas and have only seen the article now- thought I would share it with you quick - because it's always nice to be recognised for what you do. Thanks for the support everyone. Muchos appreciate.

The article featured DIY denim fabric roses that I made for Birthday Party Decor. You can read the full blog post here. You can also take a squiz at some of the other places where indieBerries has been featured in the press if you click here.

BINGO.

2012-02-28T14:00:00.001+09:00

My lovely friend Nicole celebrated her birthday mid November last year and I haven't had a chance yet to blog about her celebrations. As a B-day gift I organised a year-long Marie Claire subscription for her. (Some South-African english magazines to be shipped to Korea~ woop!) This isn't a sponsored post - but the Marie Claire team were so helpful in answering my questions and replied immediately to my twitter questions. (@marieclaire_sa). Since the subscription I ordered would only kick in the following month - I managed to scout around Korea for (probably the only) english Marie Claire I could find. I photoshopped a magazine-sized page with Nicole on the cover and "article titles" relating to her and pasted it onto the Marie Claire magazine so that she had something fun to open.

I also covered up the first two inner magazine pages and made a space for everyone who had contributed to the subscription to write a note for the birthday girl.

For Nicole's surprise birthday party we organised a fancy Black & White themed cocktails and snacks and I made some black and white decor gift bags for each of the girls. Each gift bag included a headband or hairclip, chocolates, facemasks and earrings.

I designed black and white name-cards to put on the white paper bags and I bought black polka dot stickers to fasten the name-cards to the bags.

Along with the gift bags I also created a personal Birthday Bingo for everyone to play and had a Manicure Voucher as the first place prize. The Birthday Bingo Boards included squares with the names of all the party guests, favourite foods, drinks and funny memories. The cards we pulled out of the bag included clues to these answers such as "Nicole's favourite food" or "This person loves to dance on tables". Anyone who had the corresponding squares on their boards placed a sticker over the block. The first person to complete a Bingo row was the winner. This game was really fun since some bingo clues allowed for decision making amongst the guests (ex: "the craziest person in the room" and we would take a group vote or ask around until someone fit the profile - a great ice-breaker game, FYI.)

Below are a few party snaps:

1. Individual Pudding Mousse in cups onto which we'd attached "yum" labels that I designed and also some black and white decorated dessert spoons.

2. Korean Kimbap with "just a nibble" toothpick skewers which I designed.

3. Some party decor I designed and the pretty cocktail cups which Sarah and I hacked up.

4. Bingo!

I have included a link to download the Black & White party decor I designed - CLICK HERE - in the zip file you will also find a 'How To' for assembling the different decor items as well as how to create your own Birthday Bingo. If you use any of them - I would love to see some pics! *enjoy!

kids

2012-02-27T13:47:00.000+09:00

I have started my ten weeks of teaching prac for my PGCE (post-grad certificate in education) at our local primary school - actually the school that I attended from grades 4 - 7. (Everything's a whole lot smaller than I remember. lol. ) Anywhoo - kids in general are the perfect cartoon muse...

"flying butter"

That's right - the sight of a butterfly and the concept of "flying butter" is enough to keep a small group of primary-school girls highly amused for several (hundred) minutes.

everything is just perfectly lovely.

and then 'young girl' tramples over ~~to pick up~~ butterfly.

kids.

sigh.

happy day

2012-02-25T15:12:00.000+09:00

happy birthday today to the BIG CHEESE! So christened by moi for his wonderfully ~~endearing~~ cheesy lines that always make me laugh. This year he is really old. Next year, he will be really really old :) lol. Mr Big Cheese said he wanted a blog post for his birthday - so this is it. OLLEH! I miss you muchos all the way in London town and hope you have a birthday as fabulous as you are. x

dumb alarm

2012-02-24T13:32:00.000+09:00

last night my phone autocorrected "alarm" to Stalin. lol. that's when you know.
Happy Friday!!

oh so crafty

2012-02-23T04:05:00.001+09:00

don't you love this picture? It makes me feel so happy. haha.
A few awesome crafty-type DIY's to get stuck into -

A bright headband on PS i made this
Awesome, fun wall art on A Beautiful Mess
An origami heart garland on How about Orange
A quirky iPod arrow cozy on Scissor Quirk
A cute owl bag from Fiskars

what the frack!?

2012-02-21T22:30:00.000+09:00

I thought I'd show you this gorgeous pic taken by the un.earthed team. Un.earthed is epic project created by an independent crew of dedicated photographers and cinematographers who are investigating the method of hydraulic fracturing in The Karoo and other regions.

The project is committed to thorough, objective research and encouraging open and accurate discussion amidst heated debates currently unfolding in the country.

You can read more about the project on the official un.earthed website or follow the blog for more regular updates. These guys are currently trying to raise moolah on the indiegogo site to reach their goal of $20 000. The team are working pro-bono and would really appreciate any kind of contribution for all their hard work. Pop over to indiegogo and make a little pledge for a good cause :)

secret love

2012-02-20T19:47:00.000+09:00

Valentine's Day has just passed. (Could you have missed it? no.) It was great being back at Primary school (busy doing my prac teaching) to witness all the ten-year old love-stricken secret wheeling-and-dealings go down. A true story:

* 30 seconds later *

Names changed to protect all the innocent young hearts.

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day.

7 things Sunday

2012-02-19T18:52:00.001+09:00

7 things I've done this week -

Watched epic Valentine's Day hustling go down in the Grade 5 class I am in.
Kept time for the lane one swimmer's for the interhouse junior school gala. WOW. Some mothers. NEED to calm down. it is NOT the olympics. I promise.
Went go-carting with my dad and brother. fun.
Skipped gym in favour of an afternoon nap. ~~awful.~~ wonderful.
Had delicious Sunday Morning scrambled eggs with my family made by my lovely brother.
Collected my new driver's licence and passport. Im now a real person again.
Yawned. a lot.

left behind.

2012-02-17T23:03:00.001+09:00

Before I left Korea, I hauled out a few old canvases that were hiding in the back of my drawers. There were three long canvases that I smashed together to make a big picture. I decided to do a little bit of fun-canvas-mash-up for my friend Angie from Canada who has recently built her own house. I met Angie in Korea - when we were both teaching english at the Gyeonggi English Village in Paju -

First I penciled in an outline and then taped roughly around the outline so that I could paint the canvases and peel off the tape at a later stage:

Paint. Because who doesn't love paint?

Painting in progress {below}:

(i recommend doing this on a cold day, with good tunes a-going and red wine in hand.)

I wanted to make a rough super-textured collage-type canvas set, so i printed out some pictures of our fun times in Korea together, a short poem Angie had written as a grade 2 pupil and I collected a few other bits and pieces like fabric scraps, doilies, stamps, Korean money, newspaper clippings and photographs.

After I had filled the canvas and modge-podged everything that I wanted onto it - with different layers and textures I peeled off the tape to leave a neat unpainted line of peace-dove.

And here's the kicker: I was so rushed when I got back to Korea from our Asian back-packing extravaganza at the end of last year that I didn't have time to mail the finished canvases to Angie in Canada and my bags were way too overweight to pack them...

so they are stuck in SoKo.

Let's just say it's "a small piece of Angie and Che will be left in Asia forever"

yes.
:)

Sol

2012-02-16T23:21:00.001+09:00

Was looking few a few old photo-folders on my computer and found these pics of one of my favourite little -people from Korea - lovely little Sol. I snapped these pics of the cute card and origami Hanbok she made for me when I left Korea.

The last colouring-in page was made off the Crayola website. Precious.

These coupons are awesome to help you save on some more craft ideas!

lovely day

2012-02-14T13:46:00.000+09:00

Today I'm teaching sub-atomic matter to ten year olds... Happy VALENTINE'S DAY ME!!
and to all of you... I hope you have a very Happy Day of Love. Hearts for all!

Pic taken in Bath on an ultra-wide angle slim film camera.

re-acclimatisation

2012-02-13T17:37:00.000+09:00

Since being back in South Africa there have been a few things I've needed to deal with - two of which are applying for a new passport (mine is full), and re-newing the driver's license (mine has expired). Any one who lives in South Africa will know that visiting the home affairs office/ traffic department may be likened to a Shakespearian tragedy - long, complex and usually resulting in a painful death. My lovely dad drove me to the traffic department last week. (obviously he drove me - my license has expired. keep up.) Re-newing your driver's license involves fingerprinting and eye tests. So off I went to take the eye test -

Guy administering eye-test seems very bored with his job:

yes.

* long pause *

* * * * *

Me: No, guy, it's really not funny.
Traffic Man: HA HA HA! it's TOO funny! i joke! i joke!
Me: i thought i was blind.
Traffic Man: haha haha!! puppies!! haha!!

*silence*

Traffic Man: Ok. Ok, your eyes are fine. Now, you will need to come in next week to re-take your driving test.

Me: WHAT?!

Traffic Man: Ha ha ha! ...... it's too easy!

* * * * *

That guy. What a jokester.

Africa, it is good to be home.

7 things Sunday

2012-02-12T15:58:00.000+09:00

Sometimes boys are better at thinking up date ideas than girls.
Always put down plastic sheeting when you decide to paint something. ALWAYS.
Coffee in bed is the loveliest treat.
Sometimes you need to take a little step back and re-evaluate everything.
Getting your hands dirty (full of paint, glue, wood-filings etc) can be very rewarding.
It takes a small act to make the heart of a small child happy.
New music is always good for the soul.

mapped flowers

2012-02-10T20:19:00.000+09:00

On Tuesday I posted about some gift wrap that I made for a 40th birthday present which included handmade map and newspaper roses. Here's how to make them - super quick and easy.

Things you need:

An old map book (you can get these from flea markets or second hand bookstores)
Old newspapers
Scissors
Split pin
Water (and ideally in a spray bottle - but not essential)
Food colouring
Paintbrush
An oven.

(This is the food colouring I used. You can tell how old it is by the fact that it costs R2,79)

Step One:
Cut out a variety of circle shapes. (You don't need to measure them and they definitely don't need to be perfect circles). You should aim for a variety of sizes with the largest one being roughly the size you would like your flower to be. (It is also good idea to have a mixture of circles from both map books and newspapers - the maps are slightly heavier and are good for holding the flowers securely.)

Step Two:
Once you have cut out your circles you can lay them on a tray and spray them with water. (I put my water into an old window cleaner bottle to make it easier). Make sure that they are damp but not soaking.

Step Three:
Use your paintbrush to swab a whole bunch of colours over your newspapers and maps. Don't worry about covering every inch. Random, streaky lines are perfect and it's good to get some of the newspaper showing through for an extra layer of texture.

Step Four
Once your papers are covered in food-colouring streaks and slightly damp (re-spray them if needed) scrunch them into loose balls so that they are no longer flat. (as in above)

(At this point, whilst working in the kitchen, during the "experimental-flower-production-line" I was thinking out loud, "mmm.... i feel like I want to put these in the oven...." Now anyone who knows my cooking track record will know that 'che' and 'oven' are not words that should ever exist in the same sentence.
Anyway, my lovely dad who was watching in curiosity at this whole process that was taking place before him exclaimed: YES! i think that's a GREAT idea!
me: seriously?
dad: yes! seriously. it'll be good!
me: you're really going to let me use the oven?
dad: yeah- I mean.. I'm sitting right here, what could possibly go wrong?

Bless my dad and his enthusiasm for my random craft ideas.)

Step Five
Put the papers into the oven. Make sure you have it on a very low heat and leave the oven door open slightly. Also keep your beady eye on it at all times.

ALSO: -

Do not put the plastic tray into the oven.

Dad: CHE!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! YOU CAN'T PUT THAT IN THE OVEN!
Che: geeez. dad! you can't let me use the oven and then not supervise!

Anyway,

You should keep the papers in the oven (no plastic tray) until they go slightly firm and crunchy. Don't let them burn or get too brittle in the oven- you should be able to bend them without them losing their shape or breaking.

The papers will go slightly browned/aged and be slightly firmer.

Step Six:

Once you have all your circles dried in the oven - you can layer them on top of one another starting with the smallest one on top and getting consecutively bigger as you go on. Secure the circles with a split pin or two. I found it easier to push the split pin through one page at a time rather than try to secure the whole stack at once.

Once each circle is on you can bend/crunch up the outside of the circle towards the middle to make it look like it is budding - (You can also secure the final layer onto a doily if you wish.)

Step Seven:
Attach your pretty flower to a plainly wrapped gift. et voila!

Going Solo

2012-02-09T14:21:00.000+09:00

If you are about to start a brave new venture - or you already have or you need the inspiration to just get on with it - here it is.

Going Solo. from Studio Botes on Vimeo.

map wrap

2012-02-07T13:59:00.000+09:00

I wrapped this birthday gift in plain brown paper with a brown and pink spotted ribbon and a handmade map/newspaper rose - like so:

I'll be posting how I made the map/newspaper roses soon, so watch this space.

7 things

2012-02-06T04:38:00.000+09:00

7 random things from the week:

Weddings are awesome fun. Mates, jamming, drinking, laughing and a sweet-ton of love in the air.
Trying to maintain normal blogging routines whilst galavanting around the country is pretty difficult.
Galavanting around the country with a special somebody is well worth interrupted blog routines :)
Mosquitos. They must all die.
Handy hint to check all your camera batteries before heading off on big events. (fail)
I got a new bigger monitor for my laptop (thanks dad) with fancy double screen-action going on.
Also, I packed myself into a suitcase today.

DIY holder

2012-02-03T16:57:00.000+09:00

This DIY holder is so simple and easy to make, that it's almost a cheat me posting it. I needed somewhere to store my postcards, polaroids and other small pieces of card. What you'll need/what I used, is

a small empty box
scissors
paper
glue
pen
a cover image
and tape.

Look at me pretending to be left-handed, so that I can take pictures with my strong-arm. haha.
Don't worry about drawing a perfect line for cutting - luckily I was able to use the actual box lines as a guide for cutting.

You can use any colour paper to cover your box, I just chose white. You can also use whatever images you want to cover it, I found an old art book lying around- so I cut up an image of Tete de Femme - Picasso to cover it with.

I then added some bright tape strips and taped the whole thing with clear thick tape to seal it - you could also use contact paper... et voila!

printed love

2012-02-02T21:19:00.000+09:00

some printed love from around Etsy -

pumpkin and butterfly

RedLetterPaperCo

4Four

trapped

2012-01-30T20:16:00.000+09:00

i have quite an interesting little story on the blog today but -

yeah, my dad and I like to do a bit of light "home-remodeling"

what a guy.

so there I was, on the table, standing over my computer trying

to drink a glass of wine, held by my dad, which is stuck through the window.

no. i have no words

the dad fished around the kitchen for a straw and then i sipped the wine through the window, whilst standing on the table, with my face smashed against the ceiling, straddling my computer.

2012-01-27T16:13:00.000+09:00

Cambodia - Angkor

2012-01-26T14:52:00.000+09:00

A few snaps from our recent backpacking trip - taken in Cambodia, Siem Reap - at the Angkor Temple complex.

Sitting in Angkor Wat - the most impressive/iconic temple of the Angkor complex.

That's me - being zen, at Angkor Wat, waiting for sunset.

Children playing after school near the edge of the Tonle Sap.

An old woman in the temples, handing out red blessing wrist ties (Kabbalah) - to ward off misfortune.

The day we biked out to the temples.

"Traveling with Che" I mean... I thought it was funny.

of course i did.

What if Wednesday

2012-01-25T15:14:00.000+09:00

What if we still lived in the time of VHS?

incidental comics

2012-01-24T14:19:00.000+09:00

Awesome witty comic site - incidental comics. You should click that link.

Your deadline can wait.

Crap-holes of Asia.

2012-01-23T15:02:00.000+09:00

After backpacking around Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos for 5 weeks - I feel I have become an unequivocal expert on Asian lavatory-systems. I would like to impart some of my accumulated knowledge with you to better prepare you if you ever decide to have an extended period of bumming around Asia. (see what i did there? lol.) I have identified five varieties of Asian Ablutions. Pay attention:

That was a joke.

I was making sure you are paying attention.

This stuff is serious.

look at your shaky legs. and you haven't even assumed the position yet. lol.

(I recommend pre-Asian-holiday quad-squat marathons in your nearest gymnasium. You'll be grateful.)

DO NOT SIT DOWN.

YOU DIDN'T DO YOUR EXERCISES!!

really.

No pre-purchased toilet paper in your hand-bag?

THE VERY FIRST VITAL RULE of backpacking Asia.

yeah, bet you wish you had done those quad-squats now.

too late buddy.

don't drink the water.

i'm not kidding.

You may want to practise a few emergency landings too.

A clothes peg will help. But not much.

Practise natural mouth-breathing techniques.

Rogue twigs.

GAAH.

Not even 8 year olds can get away with this.

Girl-aiming is tricksy, but you really need to try.

you don't want other people watching.

There is a fine line between avoiding 'the others' and becoming 'that person'.

just kidding,

water is good for you.

7 things

2012-01-23T03:13:00.000+09:00

7 Awesome things about this week:

Catching up with old friends.
Sunshine beach time.
Olive bread, chickpea falafels and hummus.
Finding a China Mall in Durban! (Can't get enough of Asia.)
Finding new inspiration.
Good coffee and delicious rusks.
Generally being back in Africa.

Featured

2012-01-19T21:45:00.010+09:00

indieBerries was featured in Cosmopolitan this month in the Fun Fearless Blogs article as Cosmopolitan's pick for the "Cute & Creative" award.

Another one of my favourite South African Beauty and Lifestyle blogs, Kiss Blush and Tell was also featured in this Cosmo hit list -

Go grab the lastest Cosmo to check out the rest of Cosmos Top Blogs.

Thanks for all your support ya'll :)

old school high school

2012-01-19T14:20:00.000+09:00

I've always been a journaler-type. I fished these very old art-journal/scrapbooks out of my "treasure box" at home and took a few snaps. These are old, very old... you have been warned.

Wow. look at my mom and my dad. wowzer.

Celebrating my birthday in Italy at a sidewalk cafe.

Snapshots and memories from when I was a high-school exchange student in England.

School Valentines Day and a V-day card.

today...

2012-01-18T03:45:00.001+09:00

7 things Sunday

2012-01-15T14:19:00.000+09:00

I haven't been able to do regular blog-posts with being on the travel. Today is my last day in South Korea after three and a half years of teaching here. We fly out of Incheon at 3pm on a flight of death and arrive in South Africa on Monday. Here is a list of 7 things I will miss about Korea.

Kimchi, Kimbap, Chumchee-jiggae... delicious.
The hair-accessories, shoes, clothes, earrings and fashion in general.
Starbucks on every corner.
The amazing, quirky, awesome stationery.
The uber-fast internet.
The random and hilarious conversations that occur when you're communicating in half-korean, half-english, mostly sign-language.
The wonderful chingus/friends that I have made during my three and a half years being here.

I will miss you all.

the best pic

2012-01-14T16:59:00.000+09:00

This is arguably the best picture of the entire vacation.

I title it: "Kid in bucket. with snake." Enjoy.

- Floating Village, Vietnam.

The day we biked Angkor

2012-01-13T02:41:00.000+09:00

Life has been a bit stressful in these parts - trying to: close off bank accounts, sign remittance forms, organise a replacement iPhone, cancel phone contracts, and magically evaporate 18kg of luggage from my suitcase so that it's not overweight. (Read: I'm about to blow my brains out.) Blogging is taking a little backseat while the madness ensues - and I can't wait to get back home (SUNDAY!) to get stuck into some cartoon posts - but for now here are some analogue pics of the day we biked the Temples of Angkor Wat, Cambodia. Bicycles, picnic, sunshine, ancient temples.

hello there.

2012-01-10T23:47:00.001+09:00

But now I am back in SoKo - slightly earlier than anticipated and I have about 17 thousand hours of internet to catch up on. I have a few loose ends to wrap up in Korea and will be heading back to Sunny South Africa on the 15th Jan. The dad has decided to fetch us from the airport with an extra trailer to transport all my ~~crap~~ precious treasures back home. Yay for being back in SA soon - Boerewors and Biltong for all!

I have loads of amazing cartoon plots lined up - including; Toilet tours of Asia, Sexy-time hotel managers, Screaming-nazi-tour guides and Deathly Sicknesses. But in the meantime - here are a few pics that I had developed today. A few quick ones from some of the stops in our Asian extravaganza.

Memorial Stupa - The Killing Fields. Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Bayon Temple, Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Biking Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam.

View from our Bungalow - Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam.

Old Tailor's shop, Hoi An, Vietnam.

Bustling street, Hanoi, Vietnam.

Early morning monk prayer procession, Luang Prabang, Laos.

Pak Ou Cave, Mekong River, Laos.

Freezing cold, back in Paju, South Korea (pic taken today).

Thanks for following all our travel adventures. We've had a great time. Stay tuned for some fun cartoons.

Day Twenty Eight

2012-01-08T12:33:00.000+09:00

Something Awesome: Felt much better than yesterday! olleh!
Something Crap: I don't have any phone pictures from this day.
Something we ate: Plain soda and delicious fresh shakes that tasted like heaven in our faces. (Banana and Oreo shake, Orea and Nutella and Strawberry and lime) Perhaps it was the lack of food for the whole day yesterday that made the shakes taste so good.
Something random: We chilled out and watched some Tv in our room.
Something we did: Booked a tour to the Pak Ou Caves and Whiskey-Making Village for the morning.
Something said: "Have these shakes been here all along? HOW have we missed them?!"

Day Twenty Seven

2012-01-03T16:07:00.000+09:00

Day of Death

Something Crap: I was up all of the previous night - after catching some bug. Vomiting and the whole shebang. I'm not sure what to blame it on - green curry, dodgy water or bacteria in general. But it wasn't pretty. I finally made it out of bed around 1pm and tried to eat something which didn't go down so well and I spent the entire day in bed.

Something Awesome: Having my little brother around to help me and look after me.

Something Random: The only channels that are semi-understandable on Laos TV are the Australian Network and MTV China. (As Blake was about to change the channel off MTV China -
me: NO! wait! it might be a good song!
Blake: It's in Chinese.
Me: I know, but it might be a good song!
Blake: really? wow. you've been in Asia too long. sigh.

Something we ate: I tried to keep down a french toast with oats and mango.

The meal was delicious, but it didn't stay down long...
the face of how I felt this day:

Something we did: Blake tried to teach me the concept of Casino Card Counting. Lol, basic math is not a strong point especially when I have bacteria central going on, so let's just say that Vegas is safe.

Something said: "I think I've had enough of Vegas take-over. I'm just gonna lie down now if that's ok."

Day Twenty Six

2012-01-03T15:55:00.000+09:00

First of January

Something Awesome: Welcoming in the New Year in an exotic country.
Something Crap: Saying goodbye to my University friends - who are traveling on to Thailand from here.
Something Random: We looked around at a few possible tour options for the next couple of days. We also had an afternoon power nap to catch up on New Years.
Something we did: I caught up on a lot of blog posts at an internet cafe with awesome bright pink lounger chairs. Sorry for the sporadic posting but life without the iPhone is infinitely more difficult. sigh.

Something we ate: I had a green curry at a local restaurant and fresh lemonade that randomly had a coffee bean in it (?) and Blake had crumbed pork.
Something said: Happy New Years!

Day Twenty Five

2012-01-03T15:44:00.000+09:00

New Years Eve

Something Awesome: Did a swing jump into one of the most beautiful, cleanest, bluest waterfalls I've ever seen. Kuang-si, Luang Prabang:

Something crap: Forgetting to take pics using my old school lomo camera at the waterfalls. fail.

Something we did: Went back to Dyen Sabai and played "rude-scrabble" thanks to Hellen haha. We also went to a river-view bar called Utopia for a New Years Eve Party.

Something random: Blake had a firework which he tried to set off for about 15 minutes and nothing worked. We think it was a dud.

Something we ate: New Years eve specials at Utopia - Mixed grilled vegetable Sandwich, Fried Mekong River-weed and spicy dip and spicy nuts.

Something Said: Everybody from their respective countries shouting "Happy New Year!" at various times of the day/night to coincide with the count-down of their own country.

I hope everyone had a very festive New Years and all the very best for an amazing and fulfilling year to come. Thank you for all the blog support over the past year, I really appreciate it and look forward to hearing more from everyone in the future :)

Day Twenty Four

2012-01-03T15:25:00.000+09:00

Pool day

Something Awesome: After we were so impressed with Dyen Sabai Restaurant that we visited the day before, we decided to spend the day at their "sister" establishment La Pistoche - which runs movies all day and has a pool bar vibe.

Something crap: Having to leave our "nice" accommodation so super early in the morning due to the "manager's" private/not-so-private nocturnal activities. (See previous post)

Something we did: We suntanned all day at the pool bar, playing scrabble and watched a movie in the bamboo hut when we needed a sun break. It was a perfect, book, pool, sun, relax, chill day.

Something random: We watched a traditional Laos dance at a place called Roots and leaves after we'd finished dinner.

Something we ate: We took a trip to the local night market and found a local buffet for 10 000 kip (R10 or $1.25) all you can eat vegetables, noodles and rice and if you want meat- pay by kebab. Delicious and WELL worth the money. So. much. food.

Something said:
A random Swedish stranger-man sitting next to me at the buffet (watching me as I finished all the food on my plate): Wow. You are ze winner of zis table. You eat ALL.

yeah.

That's. when you know.

Day Twenty Three

2012-01-03T15:10:00.000+09:00

Arriving in Laos

Something Awesome: Both of us arriving in Luang Prabang, Laos in one piece.

Something Crap: After missioning most of the morning and settling on accommodation that we thought was quite nice and booking in... We arrived back in the evening (9pm) and tried to find someone who could help us with the wifi code only to see the Laos "man-in-charge" creep out of a guest hotel room, with a towel wrapped around him, followed by a local girl, also naked wrapped in a towel. The manager then returned in a pair of boxers sporting an inappropriate "tent" and left abruptly to resume his business while we could do nothing but sit in our room with the doors bolted. Ear plugs would have been nice. DO NOT STAY HERE.

Something We did: We found a gorgeous restaurant Dyen Sabai across the Nam Khan river. We had to cross a rickety bamboo bridge to get there - but it was totally worth it. The bar/restaurant has private bamboo huts, different board games and amazing shakes. DO VISIT HERE. (Nam Khan River below)

Something Random: While we were playing scrabble - we decided to use Blake's phone dictionary to verify the validity of any word. "ok.. well...if the phone says it's a word.. then it's a word..." We later realised that Blake's phone accepts almost any word as valid. Side Note to self: "Fregon" is not a word.

Something we ate: A Loas Fondue with beef, vegetables, noodles cooked over an open flame. The dish also includes two eggs which you scamble in the noodle broth and a spicy dipping sauce. yum.

Something said:
Che: Are you sure that's a word? I feel like it's not.
Blake: Well it is coming up in the phone dictionary...
Che: yeah. that's true.
Blake: ok then, Fregon for 200 points.

Day Twenty Two

2012-01-03T14:42:00.000+09:00

Leaving the Island and Halong Bay

Something Awesome: Meeting up with our new British friends on the boat ride back to Hanoi
Something Crap: The Weather. Still not great. (should have done a little more research and realised this is "winter" lol.)
Something Random: My hair gets super awesome when it's too cold to shower, I have no hairbrush and I've been swimming in the sea. (pic below: aka "wild-tropical-island-creep")

Something we ate: Supper with our new backpacker friends at Al Fresco Restaurant in Hanoi. We caved and went super western style - pizzas for all!

Something we did: Watched an impromptu ballroom dance class taking place on the side of the lake in Hanoi on our way back from dinner.
Something said:
Local by-stander watching us as we watched the Ballroom dancing: You! you try!! go! Try!

Day Twenty One

2012-01-01T16:13:00.000+09:00

Castaway Island and Halong Bay
Something Crap: The Weather. And subsequently having to make a decision about whether or not to continue on the cruise to the castaway island in the crappy weather (which we have already booked and paid for) or to head back to Hanoi City and try and find a place to stay for the night.
Something Awesome: Pretending to tan in the "sun" after deciding to stay on the island in spite of the bad weather. The GnT's helped.
Something Random: Will post more pictures of Castaway Island when i get back to normal internet and computers and I can edit my fancy cam pics.
Something we did: Read books, played table tennis, played cards, pretended to "tan".
Something we ate: Barbeque dinner of chicken and fish and noodles.
Something said: Blake: Let me tell you... Che and I used to have a Ping-Pong Table growing up and we used to host our own tournaments. I'd be careful who you put yourself up against...

Day Twenty

2012-01-01T15:47:00.001+09:00

Halong Bay

Something Awesome: Heading off to Halong bay on a three day boat cruise.
Something crap: The weather not being completely up to par.
Something random: Our "party-tour-guide" had perhaps had too much Christmas fun and was passed out for most of the trip to Halong Bay. lol. We did have an awesome Vietnamese guy called Nam who manned the decks.
Something we did: Boarded the Jolly Roger Junk and headed off into Halong Bay - recently cited as one of the Seven Wonders of the World along with Table Mountain. Once we got to the Bay we jumped off the deck and had a swim - even though the water was a freeze-fest.
(Well done self.)

our four-man cabin below:

Something we ate: Seafood lunch with prawns, noodles, salad and calamari on the boat dec
Something said:
Nam- the Vietnamese tour guide to Richie the Passed out Scottish tour guide:
"Richie. Richie? are you dead?"

Day Nineteen

2012-01-01T14:52:00.001+09:00

Christmas Day

Something Awesome: Waking up to a pseudo-Christmas tree (courtesy of Blake) and Christmas presents that my parents and aunt and uncle had sent with Blake for us. Also a surprise package that arrived at the backpackers from a London Lover. haha :)

Something crap: Not being with family for Christmas.
Something we did: Joined in the Hanoi Backpackers Secret Santa and Awesome Christmas lunch.

Something random: Blake and I spent the best part of the morning searching the streets for the best secret Santa gifts and then spent the rest of the morning arguing over who was going to give the best one. haha.
Something we ate: Amazing Christmas lunch feast with pumpkin soup, turkey, chicken, gravy, potatoes, beans, pumpkin, apple crumble and ice cream. Also free flowing wine, beer and mixers for five hours. (nope, i didn't make it the entire five hours. Merry Festive Christmas haha)

Something said: "Merry Christmas!" (numerous times over)

* I hope everyone had a very Merry and Joyful Christmas with their families and loved ones. We had a wonderful day and made many new friends to share the Christmas spirit with.

Day Eighteen

2012-01-01T14:32:00.001+09:00

Day and Night on the Train and Christmas Eve:

Something Awesome: Finally getting onto our train in Hoi An after an hour delay at the station.
Something Crap: Being completely ripped off at the train station when we arrived in Hanoi.
Something Random: It was gorgeous being able to watch the scenery go by on the train and having time on the train to sit and read and think.
Something we did: Got the overnight sleeper train from Hoi An to Hanoi.
Something we ate: Train packed-lunch that we organised in Hoi An including a baguette with sundried tomatoes, salami and olives and water and a brownie.
Something said:
Blake to me in our train cabin: Che. pssst. Che. did you see that guy? He has no arms.

yes.

yes, we really did share our sleeper train cabin with a scary looking man with no arms.
i didn't sleep much.

It was also Christmas eve this day - so we met up with my two University friends and went out for Christmas eve dinner. Mid way through drinks, Blake disappeared and returned with a plastic bag. He decided Christmas wasn't Christmas without Christmas crackers - and since they aren't such a thing in Asia - he bought some random pressies for us and put them in a bag. We then had to each pull a gift out the bag and say a loud "cracker-BANG!" as we did. It was loads of fun :) (i pulled the wind up toy train - below haha)

Day Seventeen

2012-01-01T14:23:00.000+09:00

Something Awesome: Collected all our finished tailor made dresses, suits, shirts and shoes. awesome. :)

Something Crap: Having to leave the beautiful little tailor-town of Hoi An - and our train being delayed by an hour - to leave at midnight...
Something Random: We bumped into two of my good friends from Rhodes University- who are also traveling. We were planning to meet up with them in Hanoi up North but ended up bumping into them a day early.
Something we did: Organised some packed lunches to eat on the train for the next day.

Something we ate: Vietnamese platter including Spring rolls, White Roses, Vietnamese style crunchy rice paper pancakes, Pork on a bamboo stick, Cao Noodles and fried wonton.

(Side note: this pic is from a different/similar meal - but all my other photos are on my fancy cam.)

Something said: On seeing the old Rhodes mates: "Oh FANCY seeing YOU here!"

Day Sixteen

2012-01-01T13:55:00.002+09:00

Something Awesome: Stumbling upon a really local random market in Hoi An town.
Something Crap: Not all of our dresses/suits were ready for collection and they had run out of material for one of my dresses. sob. (pic below of the tailor shop)

Something Random: We ended up in a construction site and it started raining - which was awesome considering we were in a pile of cement with no umbrellas and mangy dogs around. lol
Something we ate: Popcorn at the local market

Something we did: We designed our own shoes to be made - Blake's included his own initials. haha. pics to follow.
Something Said:
Shoe lady: You want initial on your shoe? really? It's crazy. ?!
Blake: Yeah! awesome!
Shoe Lady: ok

Day Fifteen

2011-12-23T20:54:00.002+09:00

Something Awesome: Arrived in Hoi An - a beautiful old town famous in Vietnam for it's tailoring. All the buildings in the old town are all mustard coloured and the whole town has a very strangely European feel.

Something Crap: Weather hasnt been too great and we arrived in Danang and got a taxi to Hoi An in the rain.
Something we did: Checked into Phuoc An hotel in Hoi An and had the first hot shower that I've had in a few days. GLORIOUS. Also got lured into a few too many tailor-shops.... results pending... :)
Something random: You can find draught beer here for approx R1.50 (0.20$)
Something we ate: Fried Wonton. A traditional favourite. Made from rice paper and it comes with vegetables and sauce on top. yum.

Something said:

che: wow. that beer only costs 4000 dong.
blake: no, its 40 000 dong - same like most places.
che: no. it very clearly says 4000 dong.
blake: it can't be. there must be a mistake
che: no. i'm pretty sure it says 4000 dong at that restaurant too. and 3000 dong over there.
blake: that's R1.20.
che: i know.
blake: whoa..........

Day Fourteen

2011-12-23T20:47:00.000+09:00

Something Awesome Blake catching the biggest squid on a sunset/night squid fishing tour on a boat off Phu Quoc Island. Sunset as we were heading out the harbour:

Something Crap: I lost my iPhone. yes. yes i did. not being drunkard, irresponsible, careless, useless or forgetful. We were walking to breakfast along the beach and it fell out my pocket. I didn't hear it because it fell in the sand. After realising (3km down the beach, at breakfast) that I no longer had my phone - we backtracked the entire length of the beach asking every single restaurant and hotel if anyone had handed in an iPhone. Vietnam Sea = 1. Che = 0.

Something I did: Lay in the hammock for the rest of the day feeling very sorry for myself and dealing with iPhone depression.

(above: the face of iDepression.)

Something random: After three and a half years of teaching in Korea, you would think that my miming skills are quite adept. They do, however speak a different dialect of mime in these parts and during my "has-anyone-handed-in-an-iPhone?" mime I was offered several cellphones, two restaurant menus, a hotel manager, headache tablets and a neck massage.

Something we ate: Sea Urchin off the squid fishing boat cruise. Also the squid that Blake caught - stirfried and made into a delicious traditional porridge on the boat.

(above: sea urchin. pic courtesy of Brother.)

I had taken my own (more awesome) picture of this exact meal. but alas, that picture, along with my beloved is now at the bottom of the ocean.

Something said:
Blake: "oh che! look! that place has free wifi! oh. wait. it doesn't matter now does it. lol."

(ps. handy side note to anyone with an iphone - download the find my iPhone app right now if you don't have it already. Perhaps then you might be able to locate it, if it ever decides to jump out your pocket into the sand like a sneaky mountain goat.)

Day Thirteen

2011-12-23T01:17:00.000+09:00

Something Awesome: Early 4am start to the airport to fly to Phu Quoc Island. There's something about waking up early that really makes you feel like you are going on an adventure vacation.

Something Crap: Flying into one of the most beautiful and remote islands I've ever seen. Finding a sea-view beach bungalow with our own private deck and hammocks. Hiring a motorbike and exploring round the gorgeous island, stopping off for a seafood lunch of prawns, calamari and cocktails and heading back in time to catch the sunset from our hammocks. yeah. that was a pretty crap day.
Something we ate: Seafood. delish.
Something Random:The bike helmets they give you make you look like little moleheads.

Something we did: We didn't die the whole day whilst Blake was driving around the island on a motorbike with me clinging on the back. I'm glad about that.
Something said:"do you think we should go this... oh. too late."

Day Twelve

2011-12-22T11:09:00.000+09:00

Dam Sen Water Park

Something Awesome: Having a chilled out day in a place described as "quirky Saigon" an entire theme park - Dam Sen Park, with strange and wonderful things including giant ice sculptures, outdoor statues and a huge waterpark.

Something crap: Let's just say.... it's not Disney world.

Something we ate: Fish balls on a stick.

Something random:We got allocated our own "foreigner sun-bath area" far away from everything else with free lockers (whilst the Vietnamese had to pay for lockers in a separate area). We are not sure how we feel about this... but yeah, we'll take the free lockers. lol.

Something we did: Saw giant ice sculptures, went on a mini rollercoaster, got lost in a dark mirrored maze and got freaked out by our own reflections in the haunted house. lol. Also finalised train tickets from Danang to Hanoi and found a local restaurant to sample some Viet-delights. (Pho 24 = awesome).

Something said:
me on putting on the warm puffy jacket before entering the ice-sculpture room: "Oh fail! I just picked the kid size jacket! this thing doesn't fit me. it doesn't even cover my arms! I'm going to die of frostbite!"
Blake: you just picked it because it was pink didnt you?
me: yeah. kinda.

Day Eleven

2011-12-22T00:59:00.000+09:00

Cu Chi Min Tunnels
Something Awesome: Being one of the few people to squeeze into the Cu Chi Min lookout tunnel and joining the group in the underground tunnels for 40metres (40 metres is enough!) Seeing all the "booby traps" the Viet-Congs made was also pretty awesome. (see below)

Something crap: Small Spaces. Claustrophobia. extreme heat.

Something we ate: Sampled Tapioca - which is what the Viet-Cong army ate as their only meal once a day in the war post the American bombing of Cu Chi.

Something Random: The Cu Chi Min tunnels are incredible. About 250 km long and three different levels all with different functions. The Viet-cong thought of everything when they constructed the complex undergroumd system - right from creating doors which could be closed in the event of Americans pumping gas or water into the tunnels, to making vent holes in the ground to release cooking smoke away from the actual tunnels so as not to give away their location.

Something we did: Got scammed in the right direction. As we got onto the tour bus to the Cu Chi tunnels our tour guide kept trying to convince us that the traffic on the way back would be "so terrible" and that it was better to pay an extra $12.50 to get a boat ride back. We thought about it long and hard and declined. He then came back with a "good-deal-rate" haha, we declined. We offered him our "good-deal", he declined. He then came with a special reduced "honeymoon-rate" (lol) we declined. Finally when it was time to get back on the bus- we realised that they had changed the buses and ordered a bus half the size for the trip back - so they were forced to put us on the high-speed river boat for free along with the rest of the suckers who had opted off the bat to pay full price. winning.

We also went to the Golden Dragon water puppet theatre show in the evening after the tunnels. It was really well done with traditional live Vietnamese music and narration and is an internationally acclaimed show.. We spent the entire show trying to figure out how they were controlling the puppets underwater. We are still unsure.

Something said: "ok. ok. i give you this boat ride for free now! but. if anyone asks, you say you pay the full price! ok?!"

Asia

2011-12-18T02:21:00.001+09:00

* I don't usually do such "wordy" posts- but if you're interested and you have time (ie a Vietnamese bus trip) to spare then here is some more Asian juice...

Arrive in Ho Chi Minh airport and begin the process of organizing visa's on arrival. I had already done half the process online which means we only had to submit our forms and application letters, supply two passport pictures and pay the visa fees. Perfect.

And from then things went ape.

My passport is full (lucky me) so currently I am traveling with a supplementary temporary passport. The Viets do NOT Like this and they shook their heads at me. A lot. I nodded my head a lot back. I did a bit of sign language and the chicken dance for good measure. They proceeded. We were called to collect our processed visas and they began handing over two passports.
Sorry, no. These aren't our passports- We're not Brazilian. (not today) *Shuffle shuffle* Hand over the correct passports.

We walk over to the immigration counters, as you may know-all immigration officials graduate from Assdom and Bitchfest College. (We believe Vietnam to be the headquarters). You hate your job. We get it. Let's move on.

Handing over our visas to the sunshine immigration champs we discover that the visa people have dated our visa's from 16 Dec 2011 to 16 Jan 2011. This is technically traveling BACK IN TIME. since neither Blake or I had remembered to bring our transistors, this is "quite" the problem. There is a lot of moaning (from the sunshine gang) They fix it.

You get through immigration and collect your bags and make your way to the counters to book tickets for Phu Quoc. They don't take credit card. Cash only. Ok that's fine. You take your card to the ATM. It fails. You try again. "insufficient funds" that's impossible. You try again. FAIL. You panic. You start sweating. You try again. Fail. You panic more. You sweat more. You try one more time. Fail. You begin mentally calculating how much money you have in cash in your bag and if you can survive. These Asians eat bugs, you are sure you will be fine. You sweat some more. You panic. You consider sampling the cockroach on the ATM in preparation). You call Blake (who, PS, has no money source other than Che). Blake tells you that the card is not drawing because it won't draw as a credit card but only as a savings card. (whatever that means. Che + banking + money + exchange rates + ATM = retarded.) You draw money. You stop sweating. A little.

You get tickets to Phu Quoc and organize a taxi to the backpackers place. You get scammed by the taxi driver. You reach the backpackers and get the manager's attention away from her Vietnamese soapie long enough to show you a room. "Room" is on the 5th floor. That means 10 flights of stairs. With backpacks. By the time you get up to the room to "have a look" you are too exhausted to bring your backpack back down again. (smart move Vietnam. Smart. Move. ) You take the room.

You leave your bags and head out into the city to explore. There is TRAFFIC. there is a LOT of traffic. Motorbikes, bicycles, motorbikes, taxis, motorbikes, buses, motorbikes and motorbikes. Crossing the street is complicated. You die.

You get caught in a torrential downpour. You get soaked. You think it's stopped and then you get soaked again. You laugh about it because, well, you're not quite sure, but at this point it's just funny. You seek refuge in a SUPER local restaurant on the side of the street. Actually you're not even sure if you are actually on the side of the street or not since the motorbikes are driving on the pavement too and it all gets a bit confusing. There isn't a foreigner in sight and there are Asian girls with hair extensions dressed in white skimpy next-to-nothings doing cigarette and beer promotions for the locals. Awesome. You eat.

You leave the restaurant and make your way back to your hotel. You finally make it back and hike up the ten flights of stairs to your apartment. it's only 9pm but you spend 15 minutes outside your room in the passage because the door is wonky and it only opens on the 24th try. (with extra force).

The Australians next door are having an argument and the Viets in the passage below are screaming like there's a shoe sale. You try to navigate your room which, considering your two overstuffed backpacks and shoe box sized room is quite an ordeal. It's hot. It's stuffy. There is no space. The lights go out.

It's a blackout. Yes. The entire block. Central Ho Chi Minh. The Australians have now decided to play some lovely music in the darkness and you try shazam it, but you can't- because you have no wifi's. (THIS ISN'T CAMBODIA YOU KNOW). The Vietnamese shoe-sale is still going on in he passage below. The motorbikes are still raging outside in the blackness. Not only is it pitch black. But there is no aircon. You decide that Ho Chi has decided that 9pm is your bedtime. You need to shower. You have carried a backpack up ten flights of stairs, you have sweated over credit card panics, you have eaten off the side of the street, you have been soaked in torrential downpour. It is hot. It is stuffy. Showering: not negotiable.

Bearing in mind the stuffed backpack, pokey room, extreme heat and general "pitch-blackness"- showering is " interesting".
First you try and balance your iPhone on the towel rail to give yourself some extra light. This fails and you end up making an emergency call to China. You balance your clothes in the sink to avoid anything touching the floor because there are definitely diseases lurking there. You realize you have no towel.

You open the bathroom door to ask your brother to kindly pass you a towel. As you open the bathroom door, You become aware that Brother has in fact opened the room door and is standing in the passage because the room is so freaking hot. You yell for him but not too loudly because you dont want the Australians to come out of their shoe-box into the passage. That would make things pretty awkward.

You get a towel. You succeed in showering, whilst trying to use iLight without making any more calls to china and keeping everything precious off the disease-floor. You put your sleeping t-shirt (ie first-thing-that-came-out-of-backpack-in-darkness-shirt) on and realize it is soaked. Because, the sink, just like the toilet, is RIGHT under the piddle of the shower. Cool.

You climb into the concrete slab that is your bed and begin to wonder if the itchings are just in your head or if they are actually ON your head. Nevermind, you probably shouldn't sleep since it's best anyway to keep one eye on the door. You listen as Ho Chi hustles on in the dark. Motorbikes, taxis, Viets screeching, Aussies playing their music. You toss and turn. It's hot. There is no aircon. You feel restless. You'll probably never sleep.
Finally. Finally after what seems like a million years, you start drifting into a peaceful sleepy state and as you close your weary eyes... OLLEH!!! THE LIGHTS COME ON!!

You lie in bed and think to yourself that in three and a half years of living in Asia and having visited 10 Asian countries that NOTHING feels more like Asia than this day.

You turn off the lights, close your eyes and prepare yourself for tomorrow's GOODMORNING VIETNAM!

Day ten

2011-12-17T21:04:00.001+09:00

leaving cambode

1. Something Awesome getting ready to enter a new country ;)
2. Something crap saying goodbye to Cambodia. What a sweet little place. Visit it if you ever get the chance.
3. Something we ate cappuccino and raisin roll at the airport.

4. Something random Blake and I uncovering a scam going on in the super coffee shop. Lol. ((Cashier leaves off an item on our bill (raisin roll) and the charges is the full (correct) amount. Then gives us change for the correct amount and pockets the difference out the till. Leaving the till to balance and the customer to pay the correct amount and cashier scores. Ka-Ching. we are shop-owners' kids. We understand this.)) lol
5. Something we did landed in Ho chi Minh and found a backpackers in the big city.
6. Something said "um.... No. We're not Brazilian." (see the post above)*

Unfortunately this stationary picture can't really explain or show you the amount of traffic and motorcycles buzzing through the streets. You better take my word for it.

At the airport. Blake having to write the numbers on my hand of the amount of money to draw because things get complicated for IndieBerries with so many thousands and millions and zeros of Viet Dong. Lol.

Day nine

2011-12-16T11:36:00.001+09:00

the next leg

1. Something awesome Getting 19 dollars off in a bargaining scheme.
2. Something crap Having credit card hassles online because Korea has such epic protection safety-nets for their cards.
3. Something we ate hamburger. It was just that kind of day.

4. Something random Really going to miss the wifi that's pretty much all over the place in Cambodia
5. Something we did sat planning the next leg of our trip to Vietnam. Spent almost five hours in the same restaurant looking at all the different options. Also went to the night market in the evening and saw some traditional Aspara dancing and used the last of our rationed dollars and riels to buy more unnecessary holiday trinkets. (currently my backpack won't close. Lol)

Pineapple juice, iced coffee and lonely planet ;)

6. Something said
me waiting in a convenience store to buy water. Approached by random Australian.
Aussie: hey
Me: hey
(long awkward pause)
Me: So. What happened to your head?
Aussie: I don't know hey. They found something growing in it and they cut it out.
Me: oh. Ok. cool? (awkward pause)
Aussie: yeah but. I'm also covered in dirt. So it could be a lot of things.
Me: yeah.
(long pause)
Me: so are you waiting in the line.
Aussie: No. It's ok. I'm waiting for juice. ORANGE juice. A lot of it.
Me: ok.
(long pause)
Me: ok... So I can....
Aussie: yeah yeah no problem.
Me: ok well goodbye then.
Aussie: yeah. Right. Bye then.
*end*

Day Eight

2011-12-15T11:25:00.001+09:00

Landmine museum, massages, floating village
1. Something awesome seeing the sunset on the Tonle Sap river whilst swinging on a hammock on a riverboat
2. Something crap Seeing the poverty of people living in the floating villages
3. Something we ate fried chicken and cashewnuts
4. Something randomapologies for the poor pic quality of the vacation pics I've been posting they are all off Blake's (less superior) phone or my (way-cooler) iPhone. I have some cool pics on the big camera and I can't wait to post those when I get home ;)
5. Something we did Saw the landmine museum (slightly disappointing for the mission it takes to get there), had a massage, went on a tour to the floating villages and had dinner and drinks on a boat on the river.
6. Something said
Me reading the sign at the landmine museum: "all landmines in this museum have been declared 100% free of explosives" - well I should freaking well HOPE SO!!
Blake: well I guess if not, it's gonna be a real short visit.

Landmine museum.

(not my usual style of cartoon but a cartoon none-the-less)

Cambodian coffee is DELISH

On a boat out on the Tonle Sap:

Croc farm on the Tonle Sap.

Tough life, we know.

Day Seven

2011-12-13T22:11:00.001+09:00

Lazy day

1. Something Awesome Sun. Pool. Fresh fruit juice. Cambodia. Good book. I think that just about covers Awesome.
2. Something not awesome /b> Intermittent wifi.
3. Something we ate Khmer lemongrass chicken with basil leaves, lemongrass and chili. Wow. Delish.

4. Something we did bargained with a tour guide for more than half an hour over the sake of two dollars. Lol.
5. Something random Dealing with persistent beggars is an awkward thing. :/
6. Something said Me as we are leaving our hotel room: Blake, is the door locked?
Blake: yes dear sibling, it's locked because I'm an amazing awesome genius.
(long pause)
Me: blake.
Blake: yes.
Me: You're not wearing any shoes.

Day Six

2011-12-12T20:26:00.001+09:00
Biking Angkor

1. Something Awesome Biking out from Siem Reap city to the temples of Angkor and spending the whole day out on a bike, in the sunshine hunting ancient temples.
2. Something crappy Bum. Bike. Seat. You understand.
3. Something we ate We made a little picnic nosh-up with crackers and cheese and nuts and some left over spring rolls from the cooking class. We got some iced coffee which comes in a plastic bag-SO delicious and had a picnic overlooking Srah Srang lake. (but seriously the coffee here is amazeballs.)
4. Something Random Wild tuk-tuk drivers, crazy mororbikes, speeding buses and bikes with screechy-brakes that are 3000 years ancient make rather a nerve-wrecking experience. Ahem... Stationery spinning bikes are "slightly" different to the real thing.
5. Something we did Saw Ta Prohm, one of the most picturesque temples at Angkor because it has been left largely in the original state in which it was found. It has huge trees which are growing in and around the temple. We also saw Banteay Kdei and Ta Keo.
6. Something said "This whole bike thing is exactly like the Tour de France. Except in Cambodia. Minus Lance. And also... we might die."

Day Five

2011-12-12T01:21:00.001+09:00
It's a miracle.
Anyone who has been following this blog will know that I can't cook. Today we decided to do a Cambodian Cooking class... The list for today...
1. Something awesome not setting fire to anything (people, animals, food) during the cooking course. Not exploding or melting any crockery. And actually producing something quite tasterrific!! (yes I made that word up)
2. Something not awesome My hands and iPhone now completely yellow from the Asian spices.
3. Something we ate Chicken Amok in a banana-leaf bowl. Spicy seafood Tom Yum soup, Spring rolls and dipping sauce, Khmer chicken bok-choy and pumpkin custard all of which we made ourselves. High five.
4. Something we did Did some market shopping and epic food making and also pre-cooking food-market tour to buy ingredients for the class. Super interesting.
5. Something random From the hours of 2pm to 9pm we counted 38 tuk tuk drivers offering us a tuk-tuk (and between 5pm and 9pm we were in the cooking class. Lol)
6. Something said on seeing cuttlefish-coated peas "no. Now WHY would you do that? Why take cuttlefish which is something NO-ONE wants and then coat it on peas which is ALSO something NO-ONE wants. Why you gotta go do that?"

cambodian cooking class- we left happy.

Day four

2011-12-11T11:53:00.001+09:00
The Temples of Angkor

1. Something Awesome Seeing the Temples of Angkor. Wow. Incredible.
2. Something not awesome Having to pay one dollar to swop a twenty dollar bill for another twenty dollar bill because it had the TINIEST tear in it and no one would take it. (also I already typed out this whole post last night and then my phone ate it)
3. Something we ate

We opted out of the "touristy" restaurant our tuk tuk driver took us to at Angkor Wat and searched for a local meal-shack where all the tuk tuk drivers were eating. We had fried pineapple and chicken and chicken noodles. It was super legit. And also, soaked in oil. Vom.
Something we did not eat:

Yip. That's a table of frogs ready for your pickings. Who knows, maybe we will grow some courage during the week and sample these little critters... But not today.
4. Something we did Got a three day pass to the Temples of Angkor and hit up a few of the main ones.
5. Something Random (When I wrote this last night before my phone ate it, we were sitting at a two-for-one-cocktail special hour at a place that serves free popcorn. We like.)
6. Something said
Blake on breaking up with a tuk tuk driver:
"Hey guy, look it's just not working out for us. We just... You know... We want different things in this relationship. It's not you, it's us. We just need some time to figure things out for ourselves. No hard feelings and we do need a lift to the airport, so I hope we can still be friends... "

Look how happy I can be on vacation. Sweet.

day three

2011-12-09T21:29:00.001+09:00

1. Something Awesome Driving through the Cambodian countryside and seeing people living such simple, happy lives, people hanging around in hammocks and kids playing games outside, cattle all munching away and everybody laughing. (Are we doing something wrong?)
2. Something not Awesome Being on a bus for 6 hours. That is DEFINITELY not awesome.
3. Something we ate Chip roll. Since we did not realize the bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap would only stop once in a place selling not much of anything- we were not adequately prepared and we had to eat chip rolls out of starvation. Slumming, we know.
4. Something Random Cambodians, they have their own traffic system. It's called "do-what-you-like-just-honk-your-way-through". In our 6 hour bus ride, our bus honker honked for approximately 5 of those hours. That is not a joke.
5. Something we did Made the epic mission from Phnom Penh up to Siem Reap
6. Something said Blake pointing to a roll on a non-English-speaking street vendor's cart at the bus stop: can I please have one roll?
Street vendor: ?
Blake: one roll please?
Street Vendor: wha?
Blake: a roll. A roll. That thing (points at a roll)
Street vendor: oh. You mean baguette?

Ps. Sorry for the iPhone editing pic frenzy. 6 hours, no Internet, what's a girl to do?

Day two

2011-12-08T19:20:00.003+09:00

Day two. Sibling rivalry has survived another day! Our list for the day.
1. Something Awesome Giving money to two Cambodian children who asked to have their picture taken. (subsequently realizing that I gave WAY more than intended due to notes and exchange rates being in the ten-thousands. Oops one too many zero. Lol.
2. Something crappy Standing on the mass graves at the Killing Fields in Phnom Penh and standing in the holding cells of the Tuol Sleng Genocide museum which used to be an old school. Chilling. Pics above are from Tuol Sleng, Killing Fields and last pic of Royal Palace.
3. Something we ate me: an entire bright red chili by mistake in a Cambodian dish. Can someone say "FIRE".
4. Something we did saw killing fields, Tuol Sleng museum, Royal palace and Silver Pagoda and are heading to the night market tonight.
5. Something Random If you decide to visit Cambodia I wouldn't suggest converting your money to Cambodian Rial- leave it in US dollars- Rials become quite a nuisance and prices everywhere so far has been in dollars.
6. Something said Blake at the Genocide museum cells "Che, we need a pic of this."
Che: "no I'm a bit freaked out"
Blake: "it's chilled, just get into one of these little cells and ill take a pic through the hole"
Che: "I don't want to."
Blake: "it's fine. (shoves Che into cell) now just lie down, chain yourself up and scream a little"

*ps.sorry for the poor pic quality - blogging from the iPhone isn't ideal, I have some great pics off the Canon to post when I get back :)

snap snap!

2011-12-08T08:00:00.002+09:00

While we are snapping away crazy-picture taking in Cambodia - I just wanted to let you know about an awesome Summer Sale going on at Camera Couture. They sell gorgeous designer Camera Bags that double up at stylish handbags. I have the Rose Style in Teal and i LOVE it. You can check out the Camera Couture Facebook page for updates.

If you're also interested in buying some stylish purses, you can use this Vera Bradley promo code to check some out!

It does make a perfect little Christmas gift....
Just saying.... ;)

Day one

2011-12-07T23:25:00.001+09:00

Hello from the land of CAMBODIA!! We are off on our Asian adventure- we woke up (WAAAAY too early) and left Korea this morning in a cab who had no idea where he was going (pic above).

Here is a quick list of today:
1. Something awesome Touching down in Cambodia and finding a SCORE of a hotel in Phnom Penh.
2. Something crappy I left the lonely planet I bought in the airplane seat pocket. completely my fault. I attribute it to 10 hours sleep in the last three days. (it had since been replaced. )
3. Something we ate Sampled our first Cambodian dish- Beef LokLak- delish! also Khmer spicy salad with basil, lime leaves and lemon. SO yum.
4. Something Random Went to a Local Cambodian street market and saw a three year old child playing with a giant hunk of raw meat. (what?)
5. Something we did Walked along the riverfront of Phnom Penh and booked some bus tickets to Siem Reap for Friday. (6hrs. One bus. Help us).
6. Something said "Are you South African?... Why no black tan?" lol

Fly time

2011-12-07T08:00:00.000+09:00

Me and the little bro are currently flying to Cambodia. Wifi-willing you can follow our adventures here on the blog ;) (above pic taken in Australia a few years ago at Lancelin surf camp)

little bro

2011-12-06T15:51:00.000+09:00

This fancy guy arrives today:

My Big Little brother Blake-Dog. Tomorrow we are flying to Cambodia and backpacking around there, Vietnam and Laos for 5 weeks. (Can i get a HEYO!!?!) I'm sure it's going to be an epic trip.
Blake and I traveling together for that long will either end in:

type of experience.

or alternatively,

me arriving home,

Let's hope it's the former rather than the latter because i hate having to slash up my little brother when he gets too much for me. haha. Because we will be traveling the blog format of indieBerries will change slightly over the next little while. I am not sure how the internets are going to be on the trip and I won't be able to draw awesome cartoons BUT i have decided (wi-fi willing) to post a daily:
Something awesome that happened in the day
Something crappy that happened in the day
Something that we ate in the day
Something random for the day
Something we did that day
Something my Blake or I said that day
Then hopefully, at the mercy of the internet gods, you can keep track of our Asian Adventures.

Peace out
ya'll
See you in Cambode.
:)

7 things Sunday

2011-12-04T13:11:00.000+09:00

If you are packing up house, you should start early.
Point #2 - just wanted to re-iterate point #1
Goodbyes are never easy. Especially to friends that have become your family over the last three and a half years.
When packing up your house, you will suddenly find ten thousand possible uses for the random objects that you haven't touched in three years. Therefore, you should keep them. ALL of them.
Farewells make you fat. Leaving dinners, goodbye drinks, farewell lunches. Packing house, trying to finish all the frozen food in your freezer in one week and no time for gymnasium.
Good friends you will never really have to say goodbye to.
Apartments collect a lot of dirt in obscure places over time. Remember that when you follow point #1.

things are not going well.

2011-12-01T13:06:00.001+09:00

Q: What is worse than saying farewell to lovely friends and clocking out for the last time at your workplace of three and a half years?
A: Packing up your apartment of three and a half years.

Over the years I have accumulated a bunch of miscellaneous kitchen items which are all kept in a random drawer somewhere in my kitchen. Now, since I am not much of a "cook", I never really venture into these drawers. Until it is time to pack up aforementioned drawers. Upon opening this drawer I find:

and also

This.... this is the work of a creature.

I am not good with creatures. So I did a bit of spasmic-tap dancing and high-pitched yelping.

SOLUTION:

Rescue Remedy Spray for you. not the creature.

Spray Rescue Remedy all over to "comfort and reassure".
Use knife to prod about the drawer.
If you hear any muffled squealing sounds you should retreat immediately and alert a nearby neighbour.
Use a second knife and pick up tinfoil and other kitchen sundries in a chopstick-fashion to take them to the trash.

So far, we have not come across any creatures (living or dead). But trust me, if I do, you'll know about it.
Wish me luck on the packing. It's not pretty.

clocked out.

2011-11-30T21:33:00.001+09:00

Today was my last day of work at Gyeonggi English Village, South Korea where I have been for the past three and a half years. Not only is three and a half years a really long time to meet amazing people and form incredible friendships, but when you live and work in a place so foreign, the people and work around you really do become your home and family. I clocked out for the final time today at 6pm.

The clock-out machine is a fingerprint scanner. My fingerprints are always very difficult to read. (I could totally rob a bank. {and as of now I am also unemployed... mmm... accomplice....anyone?}) Here is a random (pretty dark) vid of my final clock-out of South Korea. The machine fails me a few times "WARNING WARNING" and then.... "Goodbye".

i sobbed.

it's just one of those things.

i will miss you SoKo

farewell

2011-11-30T16:05:00.001+09:00

I am leaving Korea soon and have been pretty busy with the packing/sorting out my life/making travel plans/ organising flights/bank accounts etc. Today is actually my last day teaching in Korea. (yip, as of 6pm Korean time today - I will be unemployed. {someone hire me} SOBS). Anyway, last Saturday I was ~~sitting on my couch watching TV~~ packing up my room like I should be and in bursts Nicole with the following emergency:
CHE! COME QUICKLY! MY WASHING MACHINE IS FLOODING MY APARTMENT! THERE IS WATER EVERYWHERE!! PLEASE HELP ME!! HURRY!!!! I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!?!?
Now, Nicole lives upstairs in the same apartment building as I do and I have experienced this EPIC WASHING MACHINE CATASTROPHE previously. It is NOT fun.

Think FLOODING. Think MONSOON-TIDAL-WAVE-FLOODING. Now, of course, since i know the epic damage a jerky-washing-machine causes, i am READY. I will TAKE DOWN that washing machine for my friend Colie. You, washing machine, YOU messed with the WRONG lady.

yip. Colie's apartment.
filled with all my most lovely friends.

ALL of them.
All come to say farewell to me on my next adventure.

yes.
i realise this is not the most ideal reaction for a surprise party (and it was certainly a HUGE surprise - i had NO idea and kudos to Nicole {and everyone} for keeping it that way), but sometimes when so many wonderful people make such an effort to do something so lovely for you, It's all just a bit overwhelming.

I spent the next hour and a half simultaneously laughing and crying.
Which, might I add, is an incredible talent:

It was an amazing evening spent with all the wonderful people I have met in my three and a half years teaching in South Korea. Thank you Nicole for organising such a special send-off. I appreciate it more than you know.

Below you can see a few pics of me looking the most beautiful with snot and tears coming out my puffy-red-face. SOBS.

Thank you so much my lovely chingus
You humble me with your kindness.
I will miss you all incredibly.

distractions

2011-11-29T13:20:00.000+09:00

This should be me.

Found via The Daybook - one of my favourite blogs to read :)

packing

2011-11-25T12:15:00.000+09:00

I'm currently in the packing phase of my life - getting ready to ship myself back to South Africa. Now winding down your life from the past three and a half years is not an easy task and involves many horrid things that absolutely make me want to vom. For example: dealing with bank accounts, taxes, phone contracts, remittance, severance, airfare reimbursements, housing deposits not to mention just the actual packing up of the room. (puke). Life has been busy (and sorry to little indieBerries for taking a backseat. sobs). Anyway, anyone who is familiar with my "hoarding" talent will realise that over the past three and a half years i have accumulated a large amount of ~~crap~~ 'precious gems'. I cannot possibly take all the clothes, jewels, papers, stationery, books, shoes, bags and other treasures i have scavenged on my travels, back to South Africa with me. Luggage space and weight is limited and therefore I need to sort out everything, part with about 70% of my treasures and only take those things that are of vital importance to my soul being.

Let's begin with one of the clothing cupboards.

good idea.

so simple.

Sometimes you do really forget.

beaded, floral, puffy, white, tutu-esque, ballerina dress.
it really is.

you should keep it.

ha. voice of reason. HA.

NO! You don't throw away your souvenirs!

You hold onto those memories.

If you are me this process will continue and you will think of every possible angle to beat-down the voice of reason.

Voice of Reason: That shirt has a hole in it.
You: It's vintage. and i like it like that.
Voice of Reason: You're gonna look stupid if you wear that with the hole in it.
You: No, i will start a new trend. i will make holes cool.
Voice of Reason: I don't think you've worn that in 2 years
You: Well one day i might. and Im going to be freaking depressed when i don't have it.
VoR: That style really makes you look like a small elephant.
You: Shut your face.
VoR: it's really not that flattering.
You: I need new gym motivation anyway. keep.
VoR: Those shoes give you blisters every time you wear them
You: I will buy some band-aids and toilet-paper and make. it. work.
VoR: You said that last time. and you ended up taking the shoes off and walking around Seoul barefoot.
You: well perfect, now i need to keep that pretty bag to put my shoes in.
VoR: You have five black shirts and they are all the same
You: They are not the same. are you stupid? This one is newer. I need them.
VoR: all five?
You: yes. then i have backup.
VoR: that dress is ugly.
You: no it's not. it will look great with that jacket. im keeping both.
VoR: you need to loose the jacket - it's old.
You: No i need it for the ugly dress i'm keeping.
VoR: Those pants have a huge rip in them.
You: I'm gonna stitch them up! I was thinking of investing in a sewing machine when i get back home anyway.
VoR: You've never sewed. And the only thing you ever knitted turned into a giant blanket-scarf-tent.
You: Well it's the perfect time to start. and by the way, blanket-scarf-tent is coming with me too.

* * * *

I've decided i should probably be doing some fashion/style related posts because all my clothes really are QUITE wonderful. I once read on a blog (somewhere i can't remember) "the sole success of a great fashion blog is the dedication and patience of a boyfriend who is willing to take pictures" haha. im working on it.

Song break

2011-11-24T12:54:00.001+09:00

We are Augustines - Book of James

On a park bench sat a crimson beating heart

And behind him the girls played double dutch in the park

The sun began to burn his snow white skin

I guess you’re headin’ somewhere or endin’ up somewhere..

Storm clouds began to form in his head

And crisscrossed his mind like a restless angry ocean

And the howling of hardship and heartache

Kneeled and grinned in his face

He stood there in his boots unable to move

I drove all night here to tell you that I love you

And here lies my green eyes

Rolled back in my head, but they’re alive

And all these words can all get spoken

Well I know we tried and you’re forgiven

You’re forgiven

He made his way down the boulevard

Near the 99 cent stores and the garbage in the yards

And he began to sing

About the crickets and the backroads where we used to play

I guess you’re either headin’ somewhere or endin’ up somewhere

Cause I tried the bible, I tried the bottle,

I Tried the needle, I tried to love people

And in the end there ain’t nothin’ to say

And in the end there ain’t nothin’ you can say anyway

And I stand here in my shoes, unable to move

My hat in my hands, at the bottom of the ocean.

And here lies my green eyes

Rolled back in my head but they’re alive

And all the words can all get spoken

Well I know we tried and you’re forgiven

You’re forgiven

images found via weheartit

ahem.

2011-11-22T10:59:00.000+09:00

Ever get this wintery-induced feeling?

Samgak Kimbap

2011-11-21T10:54:00.000+09:00

The other day we had a delicious lunch date with our Korean co-teachers. They showed us how to make Samgak Kimbap - which is a triangle shaped snack made with seaweed, rice and kimchi (a fermented cabbage side-dish) that is eaten all over Korea. Sometimes different things are added to the Kimbap like tuna, meat and spices.

Roasted seaweed of Triangle Rice Ball. yip.

You use a plastic triangle-shaped frame and load in some rice half-way to the top. Then you add your filling - in this case the tuna and kimchi mix. After that you fill up the triangle frame with rice to the top, then lay it on the seaweed paper and fold it up using the instructions

Once you have folded up the Kimbap and secured it with the stickers that are provided - there are instructions on the outside of the seaweed packaging so that you can easily open the Kimbap and take off the wrapping without all the filling falling out. Smart. Danmuji is a Korean Radish that is cut up and served as a side with most Korean dishes.

- bon apetit! -

7 things

2011-11-20T20:42:00.000+09:00

Walking outside in -3 degree weather with only a thin shirt on, is NOT very smart.
A tidy room is just asking to be messed up.
You don't have to be hungry to smash a HUGE meal.
Weekend visits from handsome men are totally fine. lol :)
Couch + tv + blankets + hot chocolate + rusks = best
Sleep is overrated.
Sometimes all it takes is chocolate to make the day perfect.

things i sucked up in my vacuum cleaner this morning

2011-11-19T10:44:00.000+09:00

100 won Korean coin
paper clip
scrap of fabric
hair clip
hair band
piece of popcorn
peg with letter A attached to it
one word of fridge poetry
something shiny. i have no idea what it was, but it's too late now.

hip

2011-11-18T11:15:00.000+09:00

street art

2011-11-17T12:35:00.000+09:00

I snapped these awesome graffiti pics in a dodgy alleyway near Waterloo Station in London Town. I must say, "deez dem street gangsta's got sum mad skillz yeh" (that's how i talk when i'm in a dodgy alley.)

* enjoy

yeah. my spray paint. i left it there.

no. that never happens.

ode to my trash

2011-11-16T14:00:00.000+09:00

Do you know what's AWESOME?

Your garbage ripping open on your floor.
THAT'S what's AWESOME.

%£#@ *£@%^ !!!

Golden Oldies

2011-11-15T10:18:00.001+09:00

For those new indieBerries readers and others who may have missed these ones...
here is a quick recap of some golden oldie cartoons :)

the one with the HAIR FAIL.

The one with the DOMESTIC GODDESS.

The one with THE MOVIE SNACKS.

The one with BEING A STUDENT
The one with the FLIGHT OF DEATH.

The one with THE SMARTIES

Currently dealing with epic room-pack-up mission. I have 5 working days left at my job and then I head off to Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos on a backpacking adventure. In my three and a half years of living in South Korea I have "curated" an entire collection of "gems". I have attempted to start sorting these gems but I keep getting distracted, "Oh! look at this envelope. What a memory!" (sits on couch for twenty minutes recounting memory in head)"; "Packing. bleh. internet is MORE FUN!!" etc. I have however found some very interesting little 'bits n bobs' around my apartment which I can't wait to share with you. lol.

autumnal

2011-11-14T10:21:00.000+09:00

I snapped these pics the other day while I was waiting at the bus stop outside of English Village - where I work. The whole Village is made to look like a castle - so it looks very sleeping-beauty/fantasy-like with all the autumn creepers all over the walls.

It was so beautiful and the colours were so amazing
and then...

1 x old pizza slice.
bet you weren't expecting that.
yeah, me neither.

The photo templates in the above post are from Katrina at Pugly Pixel. Katrina has a great way for readers to show their appreciation - you can "donate her a cup of coffee" via paypal. i like :)

7 things

2011-11-14T00:46:00.000+09:00

Good food, good drinks, good people make a good evening.
Degree of weather is inversely proportional to the ease of getting out of bed in the morning.
Packing up your apartment is a lot more overwhelming than you would think...
Good music soothes the soul.
Party planning is fun when you have good friends to do it with.
Seeing a Korean school-girl's fake fingernail get caught in a chair hinge and cut into her finger gushing blood everywhere and being rushed to hospital for stitches - will make you queazy. It will also make trying to control the remaining class of 40 Korean girls nearly impossible.
Thai green curry. There aint nothing like it.

pepero

2011-11-11T10:43:00.000+09:00

Pepero is a Korean "love-candy". They are chocolate covered wafer sticks that are given out on "Pepero Day" which is 11/11. It's the Korean version of Valentine's day and it's chosen to be celebrated on November 11 (11/11) because the "ones" look like the little chocolate Pepero sticks. As you can imagine - today being 11/11/11 things right now are OFF. THE. HOOK. I heard pregnant Korean women are asking for their babies to be induced today so that they have the epic-millennium-pepero birthday. Also the packaging for the Pepero this year is super awesome. I looked like a real creep in the store taking a bajillion pics of all the lovely Pepero boxes.

A few pretty Pepero sticks on weheartit

it's cool to be a girl

2011-11-10T09:26:00.000+09:00

In life, it is quite cool to be a girl. For several very wonderful reasons.

#1. You can hide almost any problem with "magical-cosmetical" products:

(coincidentally these "problems" usually occur around very IN-opportune occasions).

NO PROBLEM! just use your est ala-magic! et voila!

Boys. do not try this. it is not cute.

#2. Freedom to blame almost ANYTHING on PMS.

choccies. yeah, eat as much as you want.

NO! minion boy! what are you doing here?!?

oh snap! no other excuse is necessary.

likewise:

oh little man-friend, you are so afraid.

yeah that's it, "pms".
and oh look! now we are happy again!
smart boys do not ask questions.

boys, be smart.

#3. Authorised to decide the validity of inanimate objects:

why are boys looking always so afraid?!

sometimes this little devil-device tells the truth.
and sometimes, it LIES.
you decide.

#4. Girls have well-honed in-built justification mechanisms:

yip, one in every colour.

* * * *

go get a mani, pedi,
cupcake, coffee-date,
smash a shoe-sale,
smash a bathroom-scale
use the PMS excuse
to have a wail
(boys not invited)
woop.

tacky. glorious.

2011-11-09T13:57:00.000+09:00

Many years ago, "during a phase" I signed up to ~~all~~ a few wedding sites. And now they send me emails every day. I have not unsubscribed to these sites because I don't want JINX myself and one day maybe i will need some wedding help. A few days ago, the email i received said "Top Ten Ugliest Bridesmaids Dresses" YEAH! i wanna see ugly bridesmaids dresses!! *click*. Then I couldn't get enough and soon I was on tackyweddings.com and OH MY, they are tacky indeed. Usually I don't really post things from elsewhere on the internet... but, in this case, it's JUST. TOO. GOOD.

so much of a good thing.

stop it.

engagement in McD's !! best.
SUPERSIZE for ALL!

put your little fairy wife on your finger!
ALSO! watch her prance about your beer!

afraid.

what.
what?

yes they did.

golden arch = forever.

you get it girl.

balloons FTW.

you can NEVER have enough orange.

RAINBOW JOY!!

everything.

BW

2011-11-08T09:26:00.000+09:00

lomo pics taken in London and Bath, United Kingdom.