A Royal wedding cake in the middle of the road

Some care a great deal some don’t  give a stuff but the day is almost here, the British royal wedding of Prince William and commoner Kate Middleton.

I thought I hadn’t been that caught up in all the royal wedding hype until I realised recently that my friends and I were able to discuss the royal wedding topic for over and hour, what girls!

I hope you don’t mind if I indulge in some royale facts below:

Kate is the oldest royal bride in history, the reason, most royal brides were married at a young age. Princess Diana was 20 years old when she married Prince Charles. While Kate is aged 29 years.

Kate’s mother was a stewardess.

Kate is a cousin of George Washington, The New England Historic Genealogical Society said that Middleton is “Cousin George Washington’s eighth of the eighth descendant of Sir William Gascoigne, who died in 1487.”

Kate Middleton has relationship with William, they are cousins ​​of the 12th. Daily Mail reported, “The ancestor that connects the two lovers is the killer that his actions had been deliberately forgotten by history.”
Sir Thomas Leighton dictator died in 1610, he is the next generation of the 12th Prince William, and great-to-11 Kate Middleton.

Kate has a brother named James Middleton, While everyone seems familiar with Pippa, you do not hear much about Kate’s brother dropping out of school, who left school to become a baker. He never appeared in the tabloids with waiters dressed as French.

Kate has always been a fashion icon, In 2006, The Daily Telegraph, Kate entered as a list of “most promising newcomer” for the winners and losers style.

When I visited Marie Antoinette's beach villa.

Yesterday, on Easter Sunday I had lunch in a palace. I felt like I was inside Marie Antoinette’s beach villa.

With the gold leafed furniture, heavy colourful curtains, abundant floral arrangements, large framed aristocratic paintings and glorious landscaped garden nothing has been spared to keep the grand estate in top form, with all original items.

If you had to guess where you were in the world, when staring out over the sea, it would be a huge surprise to find out that you were in fact in Muzienberg at the Casa Labia. The former residence of Italian count and countess Natale Labia.

When I walked in I started thinking straight away of all the people who would so appreciate this beautiful place. A great place to take Mom’s for Mother’s Day, which is just around the corner.

To top it off the food was superb, all Italian cuisine. I finished my meal with a flourless, Italian chocolate cake which is made purely from 70% Belgium dark chocolate, sugar and eggs and when I say sensational I mean it with every chocolate infused part of my body.

Where we sat to have our after meal cappuccinos.

Is it a poor idea to lie to yourself or is it a positive illusion?

I disagree with this statement, it's not always a poor idea to lie to yourself. 

Psychologists call it Optimism bias, the tendency for human beings to generate positive illusions about planned actions and to be overly optimistic about the results of those actions. Every time you buy a lottery ticket or gamble or start a company you are suffering from this bias. You believe that even knowing the odds of failure, somehow you will find a way to make it work —  no matter the statistics.

I think that author, Annie Dillard says it best. She says that, “If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go into business, because we’d be too cynical. Well, that’s nonsense. You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.”

I challenge you to lie to yourself and lie constantly. It’s really the only way to be interesting.

The little things that make life wonderful

Over the last few days whenever I have thought/come across something that I really love I have written it down. The list is random and mainly made up of sweet, tasty things. I have a terribly sweet tooth and am most likely to be the person playing with the sugar at the table.

Things that I love:

Auctions

Health stores

The combination of white sand and blue sea

Antique jewellery

Ice cream

Cute pictures of baby animals

Bran muffins

Strawberry Daiquiri

The smell of lemon grass

Chinese dumplings

Pearls

Phad Thai

Lemon meringue pie

Travelling to a new place

Sleep over parties
Shetland ponies

Goats cheese

Halva

Apple mac products

Not the sound of one hand clapping but many.

Graduating was a truly memorable experience, perhaps that sounds cliché but it’s absolutely true! The atmosphere in the packed multi-purpose hall at CPUT was a mixture of positivity and excitement. The buzz of chatter filled the hall to the brim, the black and red clothed graduates sat with smiles on their faces. As I came closer to the stage to receive my national diploma I became extremely nervous but after my name was read out and the applause that followed my nervousness was replaced with elation. This was a day to look back at the years of studying that had transpired and celebrate making it through.  

The Special special

A spontaneous mid week dinner at Polana turned out to be one of the best yet of 2011 . The Polana restaurant is situated literally on the rocks of the Kalk Bay Harbour and with the glass doors that slide back the sea is almost at your feet. 


Polana has a great mix of seating options which allows you to move around the restaurant depending on your mood. We started off with a glass of beautiful white wine sitting on the cushion ledge looking over the rocks we then moved to the couches, when the sun went down and sidled over to our candle light table when our dinner arrived.


Polana has the most fantastic special on until the end of April. The R50 special consists of 300G steak, mushroom sauce, rocket, avo and parmasan salad and chips. The steak was 'blimmin' brillant and the portions were very generous. What's great about Polana is that it is a beautiful restaurant,the recipe for a lovely, romantic dining experience and with a special like that students like me can get to enjoy it!

Starlings Coffee Shop - Top Class

I tried something different today, woke up early and went for breakfast and cappuccino at Starlings Coffee Shop with the aim being to get some work done in a vibey environment. Starlings is easily the best coffee/deli shop in the Southern Suburbs.  Starling is situated in a old Victorian cottage and it oozes classic, tea shop charm the moment you walk in. The service is always great and the environment is beautiful with glass doors leading out into a 'secret garden'.

The menu is relatively small but seems to grown whenever I get a chance to go back. The small menu definitely doesn't make it easier to choose! Fluffy scrambled eggs for breakfast, or the fig and camembert croissant, all fresh and buttery? Freshly baked quiches are on offer daily as well as gourmet sandwiches. All fresh and delicious.

Did I get work done? Yes, their free wi-fi and top class flat whites made it a very productive visit, except for the occasional distraction from the mouth watering cake stand in front of me.

I'm yet to be unimpressed with this gem! 

'Not all who wander are lost'

This statement better be true because I think that a considerable amount of life is spent wandering. Life may be made up of significant events but they are linked by phases of wandering. 


When I was doing some research on the topic of wandering I came across two quotes that I enjoyed, 'By experience we find out a short way by a long wandering.' - Roger Ascham and
'Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.' - Anatole France.

How to step from a 10 foot pole - Um, Eina!

I'm not sure how and why I would be stepping off a 10 foot pole. This is a blog topic which brings nothing but random things to mind, school camp obstacles courses, flag poles, horse jumping competitions and the May Pole Festival at Waldorf school.

Perhaps I've never had to step off a 10 foot pole but I've got to climb across one, hold one, fly over one and wrap ribbons around one. Seems like I have shared some good times with a 10 foot pole, never would have thought.  

The Realisation

It has been a long struggle in my life to realise that (a) I'm worth something and (b) nobody's perfect.

I use to have this strange idea that I was 'different' in a negative sense where as now I see myself as simply being unique, in a postive way. It's so freshing to look back at the good old school days and see how the things you stressed about so much really don't faze you anymore. 

I really love this quote by Norman Vincent Peale, I think it's such a frank reminder of who our 'life long friend' really is and why it's so important to accept yourself. ' It is practical value to learn to like yourself. Since you must spend so much time with yourself you might as well get some satisfaction out of the relationship.'