WTF! Sometimes I just wanna scream - Day 15

To give you an accurate picture of my current mindset we have to start at 7:20 AM. I'm on route to the office listening to KFM I was canning myself at the silly little Faux Pas that the DJ's make, so the world is up in arms about a 12 -year old singer that was featured on America's Got Talent - Grace VanderWaal, somewhere in her heritage there's Dutch/German we Afrikaners have the Van Der Waal's  too. She is without a doubt going to be HUGE and I will put money on the fact that she will win America's Got Talent 2016 in a few days. She has a very wistful, hypnotic sound, a sound very similar to the music I love, and make.

If you haven't heard her, do yourself a quick fav and watch her latest performance:

Now I'm by no means saying the girl isn't talented, she really is. But there are artist's out there already with a similar sound, so when people tell me she has a unique sound (the morning show Radio Dj's in this particular instance) I want to flip out. The 2nd blunder in the same sentence, is stating how the US have things right with cultivating young American talent, then they mention "The Biebs" Justin Bieber - Uh hello guys, he is Canadian! Wrong example to use.

The truth is there are many many talented performers out there, the difference between getting discovered or not....is timing.

Being at the right place at the right time, can and will make or break an artist or band. As a qualified Producer myself, with a small independent Production Company, I am fully aware of the greatness that lies out there, it's all about cultivating it. I love finding new talent and working with independent musicians. Here are a few female vocalists, who may not be as "well known" but still have the talent and very similar vocal stylings.

From the US

Gnash Ft Olivia O'Brien - I Hate You, I Love You  
(I'm talking about her voice here folks)

Melanie Martinez - Mad Hatter

Halsey - Ghost  - Please also listen to the Acoustic(Stripped) Version

From South Africa : Ryki - Please Try














UK Based Singers:

Kate Nash - Foundations 

Imogen Heap - Hear me Out (Also known as Frou Frou she was in the Duo)

From Canada

Sarah McLachlan - Angel (One of my all time favourites)

In fact if we rewind to the nineties and earlier, we can look at artists, like Jewel, K's Choice, Lene Marlin, Michelle Branch, Bethany Joy Lenz, Kate Vogel, to name a few this vocal style was and remains loved! - I think I've made my point.

Suddenly Liezl V is telling me(she does traffic on KFM) that a mains water pipe has burst just outside the building I work, and even better the entire block is closed off -this presented several wonderful little "challenges" for me. Why did I use qoutes, so you can sense the sarcasm dripping from my lips. 

Challenge one would be that there would be traffic or should I say, more traffic than usual & two, I would either not be able to get to my designated parking area at all, or it would take a small miracle to get to it. When I eventually got to the turn off, I was met with a complete road closure, I had to circle round the block and attempt to reach it from the other side - nope also sealed. Okay I know what you're thinking, just find street parking...No people this is Cape Town, motorists here have no respect for road rules, they make 'em as they go along. those beautiful Red and Yellow lines, they're for decoration "to brighten your day" what I'm saying is that every possible place to park a car is already taken, including the illegal spots.

After circling round the block twice, I decided to put my hazards on and cornered one of the traffic officers, I explained that they either had to radio up to the other side to move a cone, or let me through that side so I could park inside our office park, the latter won out...finally.

Not the ideal way to start the day, but alas we plunder on. On Wednesday's I don't take a lunch break so that I can leave early and attend a Pilates class at my gym. This also means that I don't get my 2km walk in over lunch, which FYI I already had to skip on Monday cause no one was in the office but me - my step goal is suffering this week. Bleh.

I didn't get away on time and to add insult to injury the stupid closed road, caused a massive backlog in traffic, it took me 22min  to do 1 Kilometer! Sufficed to say, I was late for Pilates - so I opted to take a stroll in the vineyard at home instead.Today was going to be my first weigh in and measuring day to check my progress....why did I say Was??? Because it did not happen - My Landlord's cleaner Wendy comes to my cottage supposedly once a week to wash floors and vacuum(but hasn't for the last 5 weeks) and unfortunately she decided that my sheet of paper with the measurements on was garbage. 
She chucked it!!!!! ARGH ARGH ARGH - ANGRY BIRDS FACE.

Now we start again, look I can see and feel a difference in my tightest clothing and there has been a small drop in weight(from what I remember) but I don't get to phased about the numbers on the scale(mainly because muscle weighs more than fat), to me it's more about centimeter loss, overall BMI and optimizing my health. So...I will weigh and measure myself in the morning on an empty stomach and then have my official first weigh in and measure in 2 weeks time. Such a buzzkill.


Day 15 - Food Diary

Water: 2l
Tea: 1 Cup Rooibos Tea, (2 tea bags), 1 Brown Sugar, Milk
Coffee: 2 Cups, 1 Brown Sugar, Milk Special Coffee: 1 Nescafe Vanilla Latte

Breakfast - Apple

Mid morning Snack: 80g Yoghurt

Lunch - Beef Stroganoff & Cauliflower Rice (made last night)

Afternoon Snack - None

Dinner - Lemon Butter Chicken & Broccoli with Cheese (5-8min cooking time)

I was in a rush today with dinner so it was short and sweet, quite possibly even a bit boring. The key is to use spices of your choice on your chicken after it has been steamed.

Ingredients:
100-200g Broccoli
100g Chicken Breast (Deboned & Skinless)
40g Cheese
Spices of your choice - I used oregano, vegetable spice
Fresh Lemon
My Dipping Sauce : Paarlman's Blue Cheese Salad Dressing

Today I leave you with some inspiration and a laugh. Ciao

 

Triumph on a Tuesday

Hahahahah my word, I completely forgot that Tyra used to be in Felicity! As my recent Gilmore Giirls binge came to a close, I started on Felicity and am now on Season 3 where Noel(Scott Foley) Yes the guy who was married to Jennifer Garner before Ben Affleck has just met Tyra's character. Damn Tyra looks good 15 years later!

As I'm sitting here in my bed vigorously typing away, Felicity has now ended and I've switched to a doccie featuring my favourite animal in the world, Orca's. Oh my word, these beautiful, intelligent, savages have always tickled my fancy. Before music and film stole my soul, my first love was Killer Whales. I have memories of a vacation to Durban when I was a little kid, we had been to Sea world in Durban - now call Ushaka Marine World, and had seen all the marine animals as well as the live shows. I wanted to become a Marine Biologist, I remember the poster on the wall. The biggest animal on the poster was the Blue Whale, and lower down was a much prettier whale, it was black and white. I became obsessed, I had countless books on marine life and was desperate to find out more. At age 5 I saw the 1977 Movie Orca for the first time, it left a lasting impression with me, so much so that I was happy the whale ate the man and got his revenge, I mean, jeez human beings can be such bloody heinous creatures... My grandfather Oupa Rassie (He was my mom's dad, told me that they actually have real live Killer Whales in some Aquariums in the world, and that people swam with them. In that moment, I put the first thing on my bucket list. To touch and hopefully swim with, a killer whale.

2 years later the world was blessed with the gift that was "Free Willy" and despite the sequel, 3rd and 4th movies not being as awesome, this sent the world into a new direction, It awakened a global empathy towards these majestic creatures and sparked the whole “Captivity Debate” all over.  Eventually public outcry for the freeing and reintegration into the wild was so overwhelming that Warner Brothers(yes the film studio) could no longer blame funding or logistics. The long road to freedom for Keiko began.

In case you live on another planet, Keiko is the Orca Whale that was cast as Willy. This process took years and eventually he did spend time in the ocean as a “free whale”, unfortunately he never found his pod again and died alone in 2003-20 years after the original release of Free Willy. 

Why am I going on a whale tangent right now??? Because it’s a prelude…I will be uploading a blog about this incredible journey and some other Orca controversy over the weekend, so stay tuned.

Back to the day at hand. My colleagues were back in the office today, which meant 2 things for me… Firstly I would have to go on the "Office Sundries Run" - which turned out to be a painfully annoying experience, as everyone and their uncles were all at Makro! What was supposed to be an hour max took me an hour and 40 min.

The 2nd and more important implication that everyone was back is that I got to test out my afternoon stroll Soundtrack – The song selection worked like a charm yo, I was two-stepping all the way, yes the general public think I’m an escaped mental patient, but fuck em I really don’t care, what other people think – Life is too short.

Here’s the soundtrack:

JT – Cant Stop the Feeling

Meghan Trainor – Me Too

Mr Probs – Waves

Ellie Goulding – Never Forget You

Halsey  - Strange Love                                

Calvin & RiRi – This is what you came for

Halsey – Colours

Matt Simmons – Catch & Release

Lukas Graeme – 7 Years

Lochnville - Cold Shoulder

Can I say –Holla! This mix not only put a spring in my step, but it provided a lot of entertainment for passersby. My food day was a little more normal, today but because I didn’t make food on Monday evening I didn’t have lunch, so I whipped up a basic green salad and added some Billies (Biltong) but like the clever girl I am I forgot to add my Feta to the mix.

My job requires a lot of research and statistical analysis, as I was perusing the net for the top daily investment related articles, I stumbled across a post by one of my fav entrepreneurs Hootsuite CEO/Founder Ryan Holmes.

For those of you who don’t know what Hootsuite is, don’t worry, a lot of people don’t. In a nut shell Hootsuite is a platform/tool that businesses use to manage their Social Media – But now we’re getting off track the reason I mentioned the article in the first place is that I tend to share Ryan’s views on business. His most recent article “How not to run a Billion Dollar Company” definitely makes me feel better about the world and society as a whole, knowing that we have CEO’s out there with a little more grey matter between the ears, then say the “Trumps” of the world, helps my chi. Feel free to read this insightful article as well.

"How NOT to Run a Billion-Dollar Company in 2016"

After work I headed to the gym for my normal swim – did 80 laps and didn’t feel quite as pasted as the week before, but the Pilates I did Monday were definitely impacting today – I could feel a distinct burn in my core area for the entire day. I’ve also read that a combination of weight-cardio-toning –exercises are the ideal course of action for  weight-loss so I think I will change my routine a tad starting next week.

On the dinner side of things I wanted to try something new. I have been hearing a lot of good things about cauliflower rice and as such decided that I would give it a try – however when I got to the grocery store I was horrified to find that the pre-diced cauliflower rice costs nearly triple the price than a normal cauliflower head, Being the Al Cheapo that I am, I opted to grab the normal cauliflower instead – I would be making my own cauliflower rice.

Here's my food day, followed by the cooking vid for dinner.

Day 14 

Water 1.85l

Tea: 0

Coffee : 2 Cups, with Milk, 1 brown Sugar

Special Coffee - 1 Nescafe Vanilla Latte

Breakfast: 40g All Bran Flakes

                 2 Chopped Strawberries

                 100ml Milk

Lunch: Biltong Salad

Ingredients:

Lettuce, Cucumber, Tomato, Onion, Olives, Avo,70g Beef Biltong (and there should be Feta in too, I just forgot #Facepalm)

Afternoon Snack: Apple

Dinner: Beef Stroganoff & Cauliflower Rice

Ingredients (2 Portions)

200g Tenderised Beef Steak

50g Onions

80g Mushrooms

80g Green Pepper

180g Cauliflower

Olive Oil

Garlic

Here's the vid:

Okie dokie lemon shmokey, tomorrow is another day and you bet your ass I still have more to say. Today I will leave you with some "Peaceful Warrior" quotes, something minion related and a song, that you may have never heard before.

I absolutely LURVE Halsey - Her voice is freaking awesome - Here's 2 songs that you may or may not have heard before and if you like it, be sure to check her other stuff out too! Yes this is not the official music vid, there doesn't seem to be one yet, but it's about listening to the songs.

Whoop there it is! #Day13

Today was a, less than blue Monday, I was on my Ace in the office, which is quite fun cause then I can sing without judgement, lol, not that I don’t sing when they’re here, I do, but I suppose the volume is turned down.  The only downside when your at the office alone is that you can’t go on lunch or for me, my 2km lunch time party stroll. This impacts my step goal heavily and I actually look forward to going on it, besides I've perfected my soundtrack for it, gotta test that baby out!!!

I have had a burning question on my mind lately and yes, it’s very random: Do construction companies give preferential rates during Winter? Why the hell am I asking that? Well it’s simple, I have been in Cape Town for a few month’s now and during the course of the last 2 months i.e Winter Month’s there have been 5 companies in our building altering their offices. Yes people I said 5!  It is such a blatant disregard for the businesses around them, I mean seriously, if you are on the Body Corporate for a massive building with multiple tenants who operate in various industries, from lets say 9AM-5PM(Keeping it casual as this is Cape Town). Surely out of respect for your tenants, you will ensure that only 1 unit at a time gets to do upgrades, or at the most 2 at opposite ends of the building. We have 5 that are currently building and breaking, it’s absolutely detrimental to our business as we do a lot of client sourcing and business development on a daily basis. If your client or prospect can’t hear what you’re saying or vice versa it really makes things tricky – and is generally not a great first impression.

To crown this incessant behaviour we have just received another bloody notice for a 6^th company who will be starting their alterations tomorrow – these are set to take 2 weeks to complete! For crying in a bucket people, 8-12 weeks of non-stop construction is outright ludicrous.

If these are not cosmetic in nature, but rather vital/structural upgrades then surely  the Body Corporate would be doing them personally. I don’t know I just feel that this blatant disregard for your fellow tenants is shocking. Surely in the 21^st Century some sort of concession can be made with the contractors to do the most noise polluting tasks at particular times – then at least productivity is not continuously interrupted. 

I suppose in an ideal world, Truckers, Construction, Road Works there's more but today these 3 in particular come to mind - all the various laborious things that annoy the rest of society can start working at other hours than the rest of the world. Wouldn’t that make more sense ??? I know what your thinking but then they should charge more – my answer, not necessarily. I'm not saying it wouldn't suck for them to now work different times, but hey a lot of jobs require odd hours.

Broadcasters, Performers, Security, Traders, Pilots, Air Hostesses, Delivery Services, Police, Doctors, Emergency Service Workers, Taxi's, Musicians,DJ's,(Radio/Club), Producers, Directors, Actors/Actresses Barmen, Waiters, the list is long people, I'm just backing my sentiment that odd working hours are an everyday part of the world already.

If you look at these jobs all of them work odd hours and believe you me they don’t get time and a half when they happen to have to work the night shift or the early breakfast show.  How many accidents involving large vehicles have claimed lives on our roads, or caused complete chaos in peak hour traffic.

Have you ever tried getting home at 5PM in Jhb just to find roads are being painted? Yes I kid you not, peak hour traffic held up because you can’t drive over the wet paint. Hellooo South African Road Works - try painting them at 10:00AM by midday they’ll be dry, yes that is before the lunch rush and guess what, the morning rush is unaffected because they left home and got to work between 6-9AM.

Unfortunately I could point out thousands of little Faux Pas like that, where people just need to look at things a little more logically. If you tried driving from Jhb to Pta on the N14 over the course of the last 6 months, you will find bloody roadworks for miles and miles with no clear end in sight, surely there are better ways to do these things. Like I don’t know planning the work load, sectioning off different areas and actually completing one part at a time, but doing it effectively and properly.  Here’s a thought instead of closing a lane for 5km at a time, maybe work on 1km at a time, God knows, you would need a crew of at least 200 strong to finish 5km’s at a time. 

I dunno, commonsense definitely is not so common yall.

Back to the life challenge. It’s day 13, can’t believe almost 2 weeks are up – that means only 8 days to go before I reach my alcohol-free end date. This may have to change as I have a work meeting at Bascule Bar on Thursday evening and it would be outright rude not join in for a glass of Wine. Only 1 glass, and if that is indeed the case I will make sure that I do an extra few reps/laps to make up for it – but for now the Tequila will have to stay behind the bar.

It was an absolute rushed day for me, I work full-time, am working on my own independent doccie, studying for my 2^nd qualification through Unisa, looking for a good Community Project/Org to join as a volunteer,writing this blog and of course trying to lose weight. It all can be a bit daunting at times, especially when you realize at 5:00PM that you misread the due date on your Assignments and you have French and Economics Assignments due before 12:00PM. ERRR ME GERRRD!

For the most part I stuck to a decent food intake but unfortunately I just couldn’t cook, I went to my dune after work, had a quick smoke and decided to bail on swimming at the Gym. I would do Pilates at home instead. It’s a shorter workout and I could listen to my French CD while doing it – 2 birds one stone (always a preferred route, wouldn’t you agree?)

Our Pilates Trainer had given us a head’s up about a home Tubing option at Makro, which I duly bought last weekend. I got one for my bestie too, ah I miss my Blommie! (if you watched Liewe Heksie,  a very popular children’s program(when I was a kid) here in South Africa, there were 2 main characters - I’m Heksie and she is Blommie – partners in crime lol) Ag shame, she will now kind of be forced to do the exercises with me (in tandem – she’s still in Jozi) on some nights.  Okay getting off topic, the point is I didn’t go to gym but exercised at home instead.

 

 First Image: 10 of each, 2 reps.

 

2nd Image : 30 each,  2 reps

3rd Image Below: 10 each, 2 reps for the arms and 20 each, 2 reps for the core.

 

 My Food Day: Day 13

Water 1.8l 

Coffee: 2 Cups, 1 Brown Sugar, Milk

Special Coffee : 1 x Vanilla Latte

200ml 100% Pure Strawberry Juice

Breakfast: 40g All Bran Flakes

                 2 Chopped up Strawberries

                                                        80-100ml Milk

Lunch: Chicken Cordon Bleu + Creamed Spinach & Mushroom (From last night)

Afternoon Snack: None

Dinner : 2 Gluten Free Rice Cakes with Hummus, Cucumber, and 40g Gouda Cheese (Sliced)

Jawbone UP3 tracker data

Step Goal: 6500                              Actual 6872

Sleep Goal: 7h                                Actual: 5h41

Lowest Heart Rate: 57bpm            Highest: 74bpm

Resting Heart Rate: 65bpm 

Today I will leave you with some motivation, and a giggle. Ciao Ciao

Day 9 - Finding My Chi

When feeling down, I always turn to music, I find a jam that epitomizes what I’m feeling and if I can’t find one, I turn to songs that have something that resonates within me, whether it makes me nostalgic or just helps to get that hop back in my step –there’s always a song that can make things better!

For this week I have 2 Jams one is inspiring and drives my nostalgia, making me replay some really great times in my life and instilling that sense of wanting deep within me. The track that’s doing that for me right now is without a doubt : Lukas Graeme- 7 Years. Fuck me this song!!!!! If you haven’t heard it before please do yourself a favour and go listen to it here.

Okay now that your caught up, Lukas Graeme brings to the table what Gavin De Graw brought over a decade ago, there’s a story in his voice. A tortured soul, like many of us – life can be brutal and savage, it tests us, people betray us, our hearts get broken, we experience loss, and if in general, the smaller things don’t always go our way, but we gotta decide: To fall or to rise up? I guess that’s always the question.

This song makes me think about my life, love, friendships, work, family and goals and it awakens within in me the spirit of going forward, reaching up and just wanting to live life!

Song number 2 is the dance jam, now I have many, many, many songs from many genre’s that make me wanna break out into a two step, a little Klitse Klitse! For this week it’s gotta be JT man, Yo this guy – he never ceases to amaze me! I loved his early work with NSYNC (I am an 80’s child and was a Tween when he was in this boyband), I really enjoyed his colab with Black Eyed Peas in the early 2000’s for Where is the Love, after which his solo career continued to bring an array of awesome tracks. FUTURE LOVE SOUNDS – Yes Justin, you always bring Sexy back! JUSTIFIED was also good, THE 20/20 Experience – where honestly I only ever heard Mirrors get airplay in SA. I don’t know if I skipped any, but without a doubt the guy’s got talent. It will come as no surprise then, that this is my week’s dance jam:

Finding my “Chi" put a smile on my dial and I went for a 2km walk during my lunch break again. I was armed with some feel-good music on my phone, popped my headphones on and strolled down Main Str, Green Point, people probably thought “That bitch be crazy”. I was using the benches as step blocks, doing little jump ups and downs in between my power walk and yes during my dance jam, I danced baby! By the time I got back to the office, with 20min to spare no less, I felt back on top of the world and super motivated.

Gym was good, I did have to wait for a lane again but eventually got one, note to self, I wish my gym would get a sauna. Nothing like a good steam after a work out. I did the 80 laps I was shooting for 2km in distance, I can tell you though that yesterday's Pilates are with me today. I am feeling every single muscle in my ass and in my core. It burns eish! But I suppose that is a great thing, it means the muscles are working.

I did have an okay food day  - Food Diary Day 9

Water Intake : 2.25l

Tea: None

Coffee: 3, Milk, 1 Brown Sugar 

Juice: 200ml Strawberry Juice 100% Pure

Special Coffee: 1 x Vanilla Latte 328kj

Breakfast - 1 Boiled Egg

Mid Morning Snack - None

Lunch - Left over Stir Fry (Yes I realize this is 2 days old, but it's been in an air-locked container and in the fridge, so I'll be perfectly fine.)

Afternoon Snack - 80ml Yogurt

Dinner : Mince Beef Curry With a Twist

Ingredients - 2 Portions 

200g Beef Mince (Lean)                80g Carrots

80g Corn                                        80g Green Beans

80g Mushrooms                             80g Onions

1Tbsp Curry Powder                     1 Sachet Cup of Soup Lite

2 Teaspoons Soup Powder            Garlic

Cayenne Pepper

Cinnamon

Here is the video, due to File Size it's on my You Tube Channel: Minced Beef Curry (With a Twist) Zestier Productions

My special cravings were working over time and I did indulge a little and had dessert.

70g Strawberries

30ml Cream

JAWBONE UP3 Data

Step Goal: 6500                      Actual: 9287

Sleep Goal: 7hr                       Actual: 7h4m (Yay - a good night's rest makes all the difference)

Resting Heart Rate: 63 Bpm

Highest Heart Rate: 79 Bpm

I'll leave you with a few funnies and some pearls of wisdom below. Ciao Ciao for now everyone.