Friday, July 27, 2012

Thursday, July 26, 2012

A miss a little bit of my past

I was trawling through Facebook just now, going through profiles of people I love that I have not seen or talked to in a very long time. I happened to land on Nathi's profile too. He is barely on there, so I was met with posts of when he was still an active Facebooker. Nathi is a special man I know. I love him with all my heart, he is as close to my heart as my two brothers. That is how special he is. Most of my varsity years were filled with his shocking laugh, his goofy face and bounds of happiness. He epitomizes everything about my past life that had art in it. He is inspiring. He is a breath of fresh air. His big head swarms with brilliant ideas. He is all a person dreams of in a friend.

As I sat and blankly stared at his profile for a while, I realised that I miss Nathi dearly. I have not spoken to him in months. Neither has he to me. I have not seen him in an even longer time than that. A lot in the years has happened between us, we have had mighty fights, we have been frustrated at each other, we have hugged and shared high fives, we have triumphed over situations we thought we would never succeed in, we have proven to both ourselves the brilliance we possess. Memories flooded my head and my heart became heavy because time passes by so quickly.

I miss my dear friend. I miss my dear brother. I miss my partner in art. I miss my muse. I miss the way he called my name. I miss his laugh more than anything else. I miss you Nathi.

An illustration I found on his Facebook page:


Monday, July 23, 2012

Monday Damn Jam! - Emeli Sande: Maybe (Acoustic)



I discovered Emeli Sande when a friend and I did our usual 'share new music' days. Not too chuffed with her more upbeat songs, but the voice...amen!

Enjoy!
StreetSindz

Friday, July 20, 2012

Jason and Zoe's trip to Ukraine: Kyiv

Hey peeps

As mentioned in the previous Istanbul (I keep typing it Instabul, le sigh!) I said I would bring you the second installment of Jason's trip and here it is. I especially love the fun factor in the monuments around Kyiv. It might be every bit as historic as any other European city, but I believe in the spark!

I found myself guilty when I thought that my desire to travel Europe was bigger than my desire to travel Africa. And I wondered why... Well predominantly it could be because my own continent is not as commercialized as a holiday destination as Europe. So yes, I am a victim of media brainwash. Even in movies, you always see how beautifully Italy and Paris are depicted, and Cape Town or Kenya are depicted as war torn and corrupt zones. Let me not get too deep in a post that is meant to be light hearted, but still I probably will go to Europe first, then save the last bit for Africa. I dream...

Meet Jason!

Photo's of Kyiv:

Alice in Wonderland themed park

That thing is actually chicken...

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Jason and Zoe's trip Ukraine: Istanbul

My colleague and on-and-off (lol) friend Jason and his sweetheart of a girlfriend Zoe (she is a brilliant baker) recently went on a trip to the Ukraine and Turkey. This was during the Euro 2012 period, so you can imagine how excited he was to be passing through during this fantastic time. And as a bonus, while South African's were complaining about freezing weather, he was in shorts and flip-flops and doing touristy stuff in those beautiful cities. Can you see I am green? Well, if not, the reflection on my face is called green (with envy). This is a snippet of his recollection of the trip as he told me about it when he came back...

Jason to me: "For my annual leave, the Mrs and I decided it might be a good idea to visit her parents in the sunny and always popular Ukraine. Not your usual vacation, but it does make for some interesting conversations:

Randomer: So where are you going?
Me: Oh, we are going to Kiev via Istanbul.
Randomer: ...Ooooh sounds great! (confused look on face - imagine someone trying to look up and see their own eyebrows)...Uh...where is that?
Me: Well Kiev is in the Ukraine, it’s a former soviet satellite state….(more eyebrow spotting)… it’s on the Black Sea (me hoping the penny drop)… eastern Europe?... they are playing the Europ football there, it’ll be on while we are there…
Randomer: Ooooh Kiev, now I know where you mean (they don’t) , the Euro is gonna be great!
Me: Yea Zoe and I are very excited, should be great with all the fans coming in.
Randomer: Yea sounds awesome, have a good time over there… blah blah, etc.

"That aside the trip took place in two parts, the first was a 12 hour stop-over in Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) Turkey, where we saw the old city (awesome - a must see for anyone). The Majority of the trip was in Kyiv (correct spelling - although most would spell it Kiev).  Kyiv is one of those destinations which is as weird as it is interesting, it’s the capital of Ukraine and to describe it would take rather a long time, so I’ll do it kinda short like: Used to be communist, now capitalist lots of rich and poor people (like SA), women are slender and pretty (no big bodied people under the age of 40), people speak Russian and Ukrainian (sounds the same to me)… Also meat is very expensive L but beer tastes amazing and is cheap, and as a bonus smokers will only pay R11.00 for a box of 20 Marlborough’s! You can’t drink the tap water but bottled water is more expensive than beer (it’s a tough choice I know). The currency costs the same as ours so it’s a great place for South African tourists to visit. Public transport is cheap and ugly but works very very well and the subway escalators are a mix between a mine shaft and a roller coaster… Yea! that about sums it up…oh yea lots and I mean LOTS of churches J. They like angels…a lot. I would really recommend going, but learn some Russian first and see Turkey, really go see it."

Me to my readers: I know you might be wondering what's wrong with this guy, yeah well he talks like that and tends to throw in all the information he knows in conversations. I just give him the look and he laughs and calls me all sorts of names (or something to that effect). Nonetheless, again someone makes me long to travel and see parts of the world. It is a dream of mine, that I should make sure gets fulfilled one way or the other (minus trafficking drugs). Enjoy some pictures he shared with me (they are stunning)!

Map of Ukraine
 Photo's from Istanbul:

The Lavra, birthplace of the Orthodox Russian Church.
A statue of an angel, one amongst many others...

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Round my hometown

I had the rare privilege (considering that I go back home about twice a year) of going home last week. That is why I was scarce on my blog. It was not for a good cause though because we lost our grandmother. It was a beautiful union though because we are barely home all at the same time. Nothing brings me more happiness than being with my family (and I am sure you can relate). My town, King William's Town, is a sleepy former colonial town with old buildings, crowded streets and extremely old people shuffling around. So I took some pictures (and played a hand at some editing, lol) and I wanna share them with you. Enjoy!

This is what we would call the town square. I remember as a child gathering here on December 26's as my family and their friends prepared for the annual outing. Those were good times.

Nedbank, King William's Town

The Post Office infront of the town square.

Capitec Bank, King William's Town

Canon in the library square

This is the library. Throughout school kids would sit around here waiting for their transports (and my dad) to pick them up before they go home. I met some of the cutest boys here and made good friends and sometimes got left here, alone.

Some monument. When I took this photo, it was actually the first time in my life I looked at this up-close.

Cathedral, side view.

Statue. It was also the first time I walked up to this statue when I took this photo.

Cathedral, front view.

And that there is my village, my home (:
signing out...
StreetSindz