Just another Manic Monday

#Day 6

It's just another manic Monday, I wish it was Sunday, cause that's my fun day, my I don't have to run day.... La La La I feel that sometimes you just have to sing through it. Music has always been a source of Soul Food and inspiration for me so I am very likely to have lyrical content and references in my writing.

As is the norm for a lot of us my Monday was a tad hectic, mine was starting out to be a perfect shade of BLUE, yes peeps you can sense the sarcasm just dripping off of that one right. Good, well the morning started normally, but I had borrowed my office keys to a colleague on Friday, obviously not expecting my other colleagues to be running late, but as lady luck would have it, there were massive train delays in Cape Town on Monday. This meant that I would have to sit and wait patiently outside my office, this wait turned out to be an hour! Thank fuck our WIFI signal is strong so at the very least I was able to crack on with my day and didn't have to sit there twiddling my thumbs. Unfortunately the fact that I now enjoy my first cup of Java at the office instead of at home(in an effort to finish 500ml of water before even setting foot in the office). I was caffeine deprived and in a less than sunny mood.

When my colleague eventually arrived, I virtually jetted into the kitchen and made my first cup. Small things can perk you up hey. Sufficed to say this rocky start to the day was only the beginning, the remainder of my day was filled with the general office type workload and to crown this gloriousness it ended with me having to battle with Providers and Insurers - never fun!

Can  I just say, I don't think I'm too difficult to get along with, but those that know me are fully aware that I have a low-tolerance for STUPIDITY! When people are put in positions that they are clearly incapable of doing I tend to lose my shit. When I am your client, you better know what your doing or pass the fucking phone to someone who does, or God help you the sea won't wash you clean. There is obviously a level of diplomacy that has to be maintained, nevertheless, I was faced with dealing with multiple idiots from various companies. By the time I left the office a Tequila or 6 was all I wanted, certainly not going to gym... Don't worry I didn't fail 6 days in. I did my little outward vent and woosa'd to my heart's content and then blasted the good jams on the way to gym.

Despite having a rest day on Sunday, I have to say I was rather stiff. Unfortunately I couldn't reach my 80 lap target and only did 75laps(1.875Km/1.165071), yes I can hear most of you cringing, why not just push for the last 5, because people at lap 65 I wanted to pass out and had pushed with everything in me to do a last 10. At that stage, there were also 2 people waiting to get a lane. I didn't want to half-ass another 5 laps at a snails pace, but rather opted for a few light stretches using the pilates tubes after my swim.

The day's meals were pretty good and I have to say I'm fairly impressed with myself thus far.

Breakfast: 1 Boiled Egg
                 6 Cherry Tomatoes
                 80ml Yoghurt

Mid Morning Snack - 1 Medium Apple

Lunch - 1/2 the green salad left over from Sunday night's
              100g tenderised Steak
              20ml Sweet Chilli Sauce +10ml Soy Sauce
(I made the steak in the microwave at the office,  added the Soy and Sweet Chilli to the raw defrosted meat and let it marinade there till lunch time, I then simply popped it in the microwave for 2min and Bob's your Uncle)

Afternoon Snack - 30g Almonds


After the day I had the last thing I wanted to do was cook for long, so I chose to make a simple loved classic(this meal was always made by my mom, she didn't add mushroom and her dish was served with Macaroni)

Dinner - Creamy Chicken  & Veg

Ingredients:
100g Chicken Breast (Skinless & Deboned)
100g Brocolli
50g  Button Mushrooms

Sauce - 1/4 Packet of Cream of Chicken Soup +1/4 Packet of White Onion Soup
             10-15ml Lemon Juice (Depending on how twangy you like your sauce, yes I said twangy
             not tangy)
             150ml Water
             25-30ml/g Mayo

1st Weekend Down 11 to Go!

Okie dokie first and foremost, I have been sticking it out despite no uploads, I will upload Mondays-Thursdays on a daily basis obviously always a day later than the actual day, but over weekends, I have found my home connection speed to be well, for lack of a better description: Absolute Shite! 

In light of this terrible reality I will always upload the previous Friday-Sunday on a Monday or Tuesday and the rest will follow so the blog will always be lagging by a couple of days but for the most part will be up to date. For the sake of keeping things factual and as emotional as on the day, I am still drafting the blog on the specific day, I'm just not posting it, I then save these drafts until all links are up and then viola, you have new posts.

So let's catch up shall we, Friday of last week was my official Day 3 and man oh man was it a day of temptation....I don't know if you know what Cornetti's are but, essentially they are little pockets of love! Heaven - A glorious golden brown croissant filled with a thick, creamy home made custard, dusted with some Icing sugar and sprinkled with Almonds, this is my absolute Fav bakery treat and on Friday they were on sale! Buy 1 get 1 free, I did manage to walk past the shop without doubling back but fuck me it was hard. The food day was very typical and yes I reached my 2l water intake goal, I do this by spacing out my water over the course of the day and by ensuring I have a 750ml water bottle with me at all times, I also have to finish at least 500ml of water between my coffee's/tea's (personal little goal and reward system). My reward for finishing the 500ml of water is my cup of tea/coffee. The last bottle for the day is always covered at gym, cause let's face it, you get bloody thirsty when working out.

#Day 3
Breakfast - I started the day with a 40g Bowl of Kellogs All Bran Flakes,
                  100ml Full Cream Milk, 1/2 banana and 4 Almonds crushed in.
                  Cup of Coffee

Mid Morning Snack - 1 Medium Apple

Lunch - 40g Carrot Sticks
             25g Hummus (Red Pepper)
             1 Hard Boiled Egg
             Cup of Rooibos Tea


Afternoon Snack - 80-100ml Yoghurt (Low Fat - Unsweetened/Full Cream)Your Choice

Another victory for the day was that I actually went to GYM!!! Whoop whoop yay for me, I did 70 laps which is 1.75km or 1.1Miles. Yes this is not my full swim set but I was pasted and it was Friday so I wanted to get home,  to ensure I get the additional time in on my workout I added an extra 1500 steps to my daily step goal which ended up being 8000steps in total. This is tracked using my Jawbone UP3. These fitness trackers are an absolute must when attempting a new diet or fitness regime, you can always bullshit others but using a fitness tracker prevents you from bullshitting yourself. Hindsight is 20/20 folks.

Dinner : Lemon Chive Chicken & Spinach Bake (20min)

Ingredients:
Lemon Slice                                   Chives
80-120g Chicken Breast(Skinless & De-boned)
150-200g Raw Spinach                   Garlic              
40g Rosa/Cherry Tomato                Soy Sauce                            
40-50g White Button Mushrooms  Salt & Pepper 
40-50g Cheese                                Vegetable Spice       
40-50g Onion                                  Oregano 
                                       

Because of filesize I have to do a link to the video.   Lemon Chive Chicken Bake






#Day 4 (Saturday)

Weekends are a little more difficult because we tend to be at home, or go out to friends, the shops whatever your typical weekend looks like doesn't really matter, but I find that weekends are more difficult. I started my Saturday morning with a bang and missioned over to the gym for a quick swim, I only did 60 laps as typically I don't plan on going to the gym on weekends. Cape Town is fortunate not only to have the Glorious Table Mountain, but it also has several other smaller mountains that you can scale. So that's the plan for the future is... going on hikes over weekend, Lions Head will be my first hiking mission, and I'll be sure to have the action cam in tow. They have also re-opened the beautiful Table Mountain Carriage way and I have an annual pass so generally I will be trekking up Table Mountain 2-3 times a month and once Spring arrives I will also chilling on the beach, eventually when the water starts heating up I hope to be catching some waves.

After gym I spent some time at "my dune" yes I know technically it's not mine but to me it is. It's the highest dune on Hout Bay beach and I tend to go there daily...except when it rains. This is a place where I can relax, and just be, I love watching the waves and definitely enjoy people watching from this vantage point, always someone who's dog is getting the better of them...hillarious.

I mentioned that I am busy binge watching Gilmore Girls in preparation for the Netflix release of Gilmore Girls A Year in the Life - If you were a teenage girl in the early 2000's the chances are really good that you watched this show. We had a terribly rainy, "kakkie" (this is directly translated from Afrikaans to English as Shitty) day weather wise so instead of staying at the beach longer I retreated to the comfort of my couch. In order to help myself stick to my regime and to keep my calorie intake low I bought a couple of "healthier" snack options. I would suggest doing the same for yourself, so that you always have something semi-decent on hand. I bought the following:

 Some Gluten-Free Rice Cakes(Very Low Cal), Double Crunch Peanut Butter, Raw Unsalted Almonds, Raw unsalted Peanuts and Raisins, Red Pepper Hummis, Cottage Cheese, Beef Biltong, Beef Dry Wors, 100% Fruit Jam (Apricot & Strawberry). I also have serveral different kinds of cheese: Brie, Gouda, Mozarella, Feta, Camembert.

Breakfast: 40g Kellogg's All Bran Flakes
                 1 Small Banana
                 4 Crushed Almonds
                 100ml Full Cream Milk
                 1 Teaspoon of Brown Sugar

Mid-morning Snack : 1 Medium Apple

Lunch: 40g Carrots
             40g Red Pepper Hummus
            60g Beef Biltong
            1/2 Orange

Afternoon Snack : 40g Peanuts and Raisins
                              100ml Yoghurt

When it was dinner time, I was in no way, shape or form, in the mood for cooking, I therefore opted for some quick, delicious, Deviled Egg Wraps.

Ingredients:
Lettuce                                             2 Boiled Eggs
Tomato                                             25-30ml Mayo
Onion                                               40g Mushrooms (Optional)
Cheese
Avo (Optional)
50g Bacon(Optional)/Salami/Cold Cuts

Here's the Vid:  #Day4 Deviled Egg Wraps



#Day 5

Lonely lonely lonely Sunday Morning such a pity your asleep, young girl get up alright, alright yeah! Those are the lyrics to an awesome song peeps just FYI if you didn't catch that at all.  Check it out, The Narrow Lonely Lonely - Go to YOUTUBE Now!

Sunday was a very chilled out day, I had to do washing and was working on some assignments, I am currently doing my 2nd qualification so typically on Sundays I have to spend time on my studies. I continued to watch some Survivor in tandem with my boyfriend down in Jozi - Those bloody people, for the life of me I can't understand why the majority of Americans 9 times out of 10 vote for an undeserving winner as opposed to the real winner (As can be seen clearly during the season from an unbiased viewer's perspective) these people hold grudges and act like scorned lovers, for fuck sakes people, it's a game - It's the biggest social experiment in the world and is essentially humans being labrats. The aim of the game is to let people like you enough to get you far and if you are able to, to further yourself by winning challenges, on the Social aspect of the game once you have gotten to a certain point in the game the idea is to then to get them(the people who like you enough to have kept you in until now) out before they get you, and to do this in such a way that they can't help but look back and say damn I was totally blindsided!

The aim is not to be someone's best friend. Social theory and the psychological knowledge and insight into the human psyche we gain through this show is significant - but this selfish trend is definitely more predominant in the US. Just look at the show - Take It All - The premise is simple, you can as the final 2 players either each keep their respective winnings or 1 Could Take It All or if both are greedy and say Take It All they both lose - Out of the season I watched, more people went home with nothing because of greed than even winners that lied to the other final player and then wrote Take It All. Bloody aggreious!Why be selfish, hell people in the green room everyone can make a pact before hand and decide that they will all get something in the end and in so doing screw the producers of the show....but no! Selfish Selfish Selfish. Anyway that's a blog for another day. 

Because I didn't go to gym, I  took a nice stroll down the vineyard in the afternoon. Yes I live on a property with a small vineyard.

I managed to drink my 2l of water, I also brewed my own herbal tea and made iced tea of it.  My food day was pretty boring but no matter tomorrow is another day and my dinner was bloody delish!

Breakfast: 40g Kellogg's All Bran Flakes
                 1 Small Banana
                 4 Crushed Almonds
                 100ml Full Cream Milk
                 1 Teaspoon of Brown Sugar

Mid-morning Snack : 40g Peanuts and Raisins
                           

Lunch: 40g Carrots
             40g Red Pepper Hummus
            100g Beef Biltong
         

Afternoon Snack :   100ml Yoghurt
                                 1 Medium Apple


Dinner: Tempura Prawns and Salad

100g Tempura Prawns
Lettuce
Tomato
Onion
Feta
Cucumber
Green & Yellow Pepper









Here's the vid folks:

#Day 2 - Oh Mother Me!

Okay okay, yes it's day 2 and already the temptation is flying around me, my colleagues brought in  the most decadent looking "rusks' on the planet, cherries and nuts. But I stayed strong, Fuck me this is gonna be tough. Today I can feel the tender shoulders from yesterday's swim but it's all good, this means I am actually doing something. 

Yes I had my water for the day clocking in at 2.2l yes I ate the right things, prep was key here. I boiled 3 eggs the eve of day one to have some ready to take along to work, I also had yoghurt and Hummus in my fridge already and just had to slice a few raw carrots and grab an apple.

For brekkie I had - 40g bowl of All Bran Flakes, with 4 crushed almonds sprinkled over, 60ml of Full Cream Milk, 1 teaspoon of brown sugar.

Mid Morning Snack - 1 Medium Apple

Lunch - A Hard Boiled Egg and 100ml Low Fat Yoghurt(Unsweetened)

I also took an afternoon stroll, with my H2O in tow I missioned down Somerset Rd until I reached Woolies(Woolworths) which is approximately 1km from my office and went back a slightly longer route. Booyah!

Afternoon Snack - 40g of raw carrots, with 50g Red Pepper Hummus (Can you say #Yummy)

After a hectic day at work, client issues - why are some people just douchy??? No idea but hey that's life I suppose. I got myself mentally ready and went to gym, this time however I only did 55 laps and I was absolutely spent. The aching in my arms eish, to chauk up the rest of the workout I did some weight training, when I got home, using my 5kg dumbells - primarily focused on my arms and did 4 different styles, the arm curl, the lift above the head, the lie on the ground and bring up and the Johnny Bravo Monkey Baby! 25 of each.

I then did the 5min workout featured in Cosmopolitan May 2016(Yes I have old issues of Cosmos lying around, and if I really like the exercises featured I cut them out and put them in my handy flip file(Dork Dork)).

Cosmos always have nice little, effective workouts easily done from home, these days with the "Technological Age" most of them are available online, so do yourself a favour and check em out yall. 

Dinner time, no fancy things tonight as I mentioned it was a HE-KA-TE Day at work, that is my word for Hectic yes I know it's random, but guess what, I don't really care, my slang is forever becoming global trends after the fact, so you just wait and see before you know it people will be bastardising English even further and Hekateying left right and centre. 

Cauliflower, Zucchini & Beef Strips(With my own special little marinade)

100g-120g Cauliflower

100g Zucchini

50ml Royco Cheese Sauce (Optional)

100g Lean Tenderized Steak

15-25ml Sweet Chilli Sauce

15ml Soy Sauce

Cayene Pepper

Oregano

Garlic

Again feel free to double or even triple up on your veg if you're still hungry. The Royco Cheese sauce is very low in calories only 31cal/132kj per 50ml so you can double up on that too if you need to, guilt-free no less. The remainder can be stored in your fridge and is to be used within 3 days, the only reason I didn't use the sauce last night was because I knew I wouldn't be making stuff requiring cheese sauce again in the next 2 days and didn't want to be wasteful. All of my meals can easily incorporate a starch/carb of some sort if you are cooking for the entire fam, which makes it easier to stick to as you don't have to cook several different things, and if hubby or boyfriend isn't onboard...then they have hands and can make their own bloody dinner. LOL too funny I can just imagine the cringing and looks of death being shot out at you, believe me I've had them before too.

Here's the vid folks.

Yes it's Lorelai Gilmore from Gilmore Girls you are hearing in the background yall, I'm binge watching it all before the Netflix premiere on 25 November, can not flippin wait. Ciao Ciao for now bitches, oh and bros.

Clean Eating #Day1

Like so many others out there, I find myself at the tender age of 30(cough,cough,grimace, grimace) wanting to get healthier and of course to get rid of those unwanted extra pounds. I have tried many diets from all different theorists and walks of life,  anything from High Protein to Low Carb, Weight Watchers, Body for Life, The Venus Method, Atkins, Banting, Herbal Life, GI Lean, Juicing, Soup Diets, Slender Wonder the importance of factors such as Type 2 Diabetes, Insulin Resistance, Leptin Resistance and Production,  the various new wonder cures like Garcinia Cambogia, Rasberry Ketones, not even to mention the various different sport supplements on the market and don't get me wrong for the most part they work but once they are over(Meaning you no longer stick to the regime 100%). You typically return to a more normal/modern way of eating and or drinking - viola before you know what's happened you pick everything back up again and sometimes even balloon up to heavier than before. 

So this time round, being a little older and I'd like to think wiser I have decided to make my own combination of some of the most promising new "weight loss" trends. I am combining good old fashioned exercise 40-60min a day 3-5 times a week with my own personal combination of "Clean Eating with a Banting Twist" I have looked at the different options out there and based on past experience decided that I would opt for a more sustainable option. My plan is going to take 3 months/12 weeks, the reasoning behind this time line is that fundamental body changes noted in both body building and in boxing hell even most diets like Venus Method/Body For Life guage that this is the time frame the body requires to go through substantial changes.

I am a foodie through and through, I enjoy rich, decadent, flavourful food with a sweet tooth to boot. To top this all off me likes me drinkies, I am an avid Tequila connoisseur, can appreciate a fine wine with some delicious cheese or chocolate or that sublime frozen cocktail as a sun-downer on a gorgeous summer's day. So yes for me complete starvation and saying bye-bye boozy just is not an option. Essentially I will be keeping my calories low whilst still consuming enough proteins and absorbing enough nutrients in order to prevent my body from believing it's starving. I plan to tackle this thing in 3 stages. For the first 21 Days I will not be allowed to drink at all! Yes yes super crazy but I'm sure I can do it, this is purely to help me detox my body. After the 21 days I will allow myself 3-5 units of alcohol a week under the presumption that the exercise regime continues, kinda my own reward system. No GYM No Drink! And at least that will only make me a Hermit for 3 weeks because if were all honest it's a lot harder to stick to a diet when out and about.

The general idea is the following, I will be drinking at least 2l of water a day, I will be monitoring my, heart rate, daily activity levels, burned calories, calories consumed and sleep using my UP3 wristband- these things are awesome! I am starting with a 6500 step goal daily and will eventually be moving up from that. I will be swimming 3-5 times a week and should I be unable to go to gym to swim or exercise I will log an additional 3,500 steps on those days. When it comes to the eating side of things, I will be using portion control when cooking, weighing my food. I will be eating 4-6 meals a day and I will be logging my tea, coffee, 100% pure fruit juice and vitamin water intake too,after 21 days will be logging my alcohol units too.

Yes blogging about my journey might sound trivial and stupid, but I like so many of you out there I really need to get this done, if not at 30 then when, and honestly having to report my daily trials and tribulations will not only serve to motivate me, it might just help some of you out there too. I will be uploading my evening meals daily and can guarantee that they will be a twist on your average "diet food', because we all have lives they will have short prep times and hopefully flavourable results. Now let's do this mother!

Here's a quick breakdown of Day 1. I woke up felt pumped and ready, I had my 1st 500ml water on the way to work, gym bag in tow. Had my 1st Java once I got to work, which for me is an achievement in itself as I am a complete Coffee Addict. Spent the day at the office by snacking sensibly and filling up on more Aqua, Rooibos and Java. After work I hit the gym for the first time in over a year, I figured I would get back into this fitness thing by swimming. In my "fitter" days I did 130 laps this is 3.25km or 2 miles, so for my first time back in the pool I thought I would push for at least 70 laps, this is just over a mile, to my absolute delight I managed to do 85 laps without going into "pass out exhaustion mode". During this session I drank another 750ml of water pushing me over my day's H2O quota so it was all happy days. Below is a brief food diary for the day and the vid for my dinner "Zucchini a la Michelle"

Day 1

Pre- Breakfast - 500ml Water with lemon
Breakfast - 1 Boiled Egg, 6 Cherry tomatoes, 4 Button Mushroom, Coffee, 1 Brown Sugar, Milk   
Mid -morning - Apple  + Rooibos Tea no Milk, 500ml Water
Lunch - Yoghurt + Coffee 1 Brown Sugar, Milk

Way Home -500ml Water

Dinner - Zucchini a la Michelle
100g Lean Beef Mince
40-50g Mozarella Cheese
40-50g 6-8 Cherry tomatoes
40g Onions
4 Medium Button Mushrooms
100g Zucchini

#Investing

As I'm sure you've all noticed I like my #TechStocks, #LifestyleStocks and #RenewableEnergyStocks. Today my top 5 must #BUY #TechStocks for 2016 - these are for the med-long term expect maximum returns - the rapid growth will be seen starting in about 2- 3 years (when the rest of the world catches on) but if you are willing for to wait a little longer the rewards you will reap for "getting in early" will be ASTRONOMICAL.

1. APPL - Apple Inc - Apple will remain sought after and cool as long as we have creative people roaming the earth - nuff said. Once you go Mac you NEVER EVER go back! (Let's face it people it's not early to get in with Apple but had you gotten in earlier you'd be smiling all the way to the bank now - these guys ain't going anywhere but onwards and upwards)

2.CSCO - Cisco Systems - Absolute Pioneers in the networking/communications/telecoms industry - I remember taking a networking course through Cisco a good 14 Yrs ago and even then the absolute genius of their networking designs were obvious. Fast forward to the early 2000's with the world switching to VOIP, most people using VOIP systems have Cisco PBX's, whether they know it or not - look down at your phone, do you see the Cisco logo?  Not only that but most soft switches, routers, fiber -optics and networking patches also stemmed from their original design and genius. This company is by far not done with evolving and will continue to innovate and bring new exciting technologies to both private and corporate consumers (on a Global scale)

3.MU Micron Technology Inc. -They manufacture semiconductors for the electronics industry. Specifically, the company produces DRAM (dynamic random access memory) and NAND/NOR flash memory.

4. GLW - Corning Inc. - They manufacture high-quality ceramic and glass material for consumer and industrial applications. They are predominantly known for their incredibly durable Gorilla Glass product line, commonly found on the face of consumer devices such as navigation systems,smartphones,tablets, e-readers apart from this stronghold on consumer devices, they're very well diversified and produce various environmental materials, fiber-optic products and other specialty materials.

5. TSM Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing - The name says it all.

With the IoT growing rapidly and the world evolving into a "connected" and "smart" environment at the speed of light, these bad boys are all good to have in your deck - As Kenny Rogers would say "you gotta know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away, know when to run..." 

The world of VR is also fast approaching, I am currently exploring what the various tech companies have to offer and will be back with my pick for leader of the pack!

The Dreamer

As children we learn the world is a beautiful wonderful place and that anything's possible - Fairytales and lies get propped up on pedastals and we fall for it hook line and sinker. Fairplay to parents the intent is not in any way malicious, quite to the contrary - these tales are told to inspire and instill a sense of wanting more out of life. We created our own realities, anything was possible. 

Sadly what they neglected to mention was.....Success requires sacrifice, being the best is hard, your dream is attainable but my dear child, the road there will not be easy and only the few that push through will eventually achieve what they set out to achieve. As an adult I have found that most people give up far too quickly on their childhood ambitions, hell even on their teenage ambitions. I completely get it that being Fire Fighter at 18 is no longer as appealing as it was when you were 8 but surely the dreams you have in your late teens and through your twenties are what you truly want? If that is indeed accurate it is damn depressing to see how few people actually pursue these ambitions in real life. Hell even if not possible as a main income stream why not try get things going on the side???? I just don't get how people are able to completely shut off their "inner voice" so easily, so many of us fall into the mundaine, the mediocre, the not quite happy but it's ok, the upper-middle class ceilling of it all and are perfectliy fine with malingering there till their last breath - the same can not be said for myself. I remain the "dreamer" a title I am happy to own in my close group of friends, in fact I normally tell them if I ever stop  chasing what I want, take me out back and pull the trigger. It's turning out to sound really naive but, growing up I actually thought that everyone grows up wanting to live a life worth living, leave a legacy, you know....Whoops guess not! 

I often wonder where it all went wrong, I didn't grow up wealthy and there were a few stage where my mother would sacrifice having meat so that me and my brothers could have meat so it wasn't always sunshine and roses, but I honestly can't complain, I feel like I had a great childhood, outdoor adventures, rocks were my toys, oh my hat and trees my fortresses - yes when they were finally released we were a family of gamers, I remember the first PC we ever got, with it's green and black screen and 1 game- for the life of me I can't remember the name but you know it well. You are a little guy and every stage you find to find keys, and no kids this is pre-lemmings so there was no colour or graphics to speak of. Then came the 8 bit games, good ol Islander, Tetris, Mario Bro's, Circus, Duck Hunt and Olympic, we eventually upgraded to SAGA and the age of Mortal Combat began, I remember waking up once to go to the loo must've been about 8 and there was my dad at 2:00AM jamming Mortal Combat - His favourite charachter was always Sub Zero - madness. In a way I'm thankful tech wasn't as big a part of daily life as it is now. Friednships were organic and real, you met the neighbourhood kids for game of Cricket or Tennis, or tok-tokkie! We went biking up the mountains and exploring, played Kleilat and got up to no good. 

I guess I was fortunate to grow up in a household where we didn't really experience any outward racism, not that some of my extended family don't tow the line, but we were fortunate that colour was not made an issue ever. So that I guess was a positive, my parents made us ensure that we got good grades and kept our options open but never pushed us like some crazy parents do, our choices were pretty much ours. Not that I ever chose the highway - off the beaten path for me all the way, I've been bumped, bruised and broken. I've worked in various industries and have met loads of amazing people, but the sad common denominator has always been that only the precious few were and are actually doing what they love, don't get me wrong we can't all come from wealth and have our dreams handed to us on a silver platter and sometimes you have to do the day job to get to the dream but dammit people life's just too damn short to be unhappy! And not to at the very least attempt to reach your dream.

I always say as long as you know where you want to go, how you get there doesn't matter, just work hard, get back up for the thousandth time and get there! 

BIG CHANGES

This week was challenging to say the least, I started the Herbal Life supplement plan, 12 weeks to a new me! I am drinking 2 shakes a day, I have 2 snack allowances along with these shakes, and am then allowed to have a normal meal at night, bar the carbs of course. But if you feel you need carbs you can have 250g of them with your meal.  I also have to exercise 30min a day. I have been mixing it up with various workouts from Cosmo and Women's Health magazine and let me tell you ladies, I have got pains in places I didn't know I had. Monday is the official weigh and measure days, I will be tracking this progress weekly. On another note I have decided to start a Herbal Life weight loss challenge, I think this will not only help motivate me but also provide others in my situation with some moral support.

On the business end of things MediaTech took place at the Dome in Jozi, this year was absolutely amaze balls, all the High-tech gadgets and forward thinking innovation on display, has fully recharged my batteries and fueled the fire for me to continue the pursuit of starting an NGO, I am going to head into the rural community on Tuesday morning to do preliminary interviews and do a basic needs analysis of the area. This project is going to change so many lives, not to mention mindsets. I think it's about time I did my part to contribute to change.

  

I am passionate about People, Music & Video and have always been, music is my first love, I write and produce my own music and appreciate all genre's of music - it has always played a huge part in my life. I decided young that I would one day have my own Production Company with an Independent Record Label not only to release my own material, but to enable other talented individuals to live their dreams and release their material too. Music Connects people in a very special way it unites even the most unlikely people and always will. I view music as an international language,  an expression of the soul. 

On the other side of my brain I was enthralled by stories, reading them, imagining the characters and setting the scene in my mind, I always loved putting on plays and telling stories to others. As a teenager I realised that I not only enjoyed fiction, but reality too, I would people watch all the time! I still do, holy hell Camden Town in England is a fantastic place to people watch! Within my own social circle I was and am the person that friends and family would open up to, I revelled in it. I am fascinated by the human mind, our ideals, emotions, desires, what drives us, it's all soooo deeply intriguing to me.

I graduated in 2011 and got my Sound Engineer Diploma(Live Sound & Post Production), started doing some freelance work and then decided that a Degree in Psychology and Languages would be an essential next step. This would enable me to bring international music in, and represent international artists without a middleman as I would speak the language, I would be able to negotiate my own deals etc. Whilst obtaining this Degree I am systematically building my business whilst still Au-Paring. It's been a tough road and if I've learned one thing in life, it's to keep trying. If your approach no longer works then change it. I wanted to find a way to work, within my industry, whilst doing good. What I realized was that all these passions of mine share one commonality, the inter-connectivity it provides between us as humanity.  Life is a continuous cycle of experiences, and stories, these experiences and stories are the very fibre that connects the world and helps us live and understand life a better. The result I am now utilizing my Community Psychology knowledge, to assess what this Community's needs are, then I will create awareness of these issues and raise funds to combat them by utilizing my Post Production skills i.e shooting a doccie, editing it, releasing it. Scoring the documentary, with proudly South-African music, by unsigned artists! It's perfect, I cannot wait to start this journey - the hope is to create real change and instill a sense of empowerment in this community, to create jobs, focus on skills development and education as well as tackling some social and economical inequalities these people face daily.

I am sooo looking forward to bringing this project to fruition, and finding suitable partners to undertake this journey with me.