My Mini Adventure in Jo'burg....

Weekend full of zoo bikini finalists and 4x4 off road trailing….

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 09:20:31 +0200

Everyone left between 3pm-4pmish on Friday. Most went to the Lords bar which is over the road or to the Barons bar behind the JSE building. I finished at about 5.30ish and waited for some the girls to finish as they were going to a bar called News Café which is like agenda/abacus. Most of the consultants go there but the older guys stay clear of it as they say it’s a meat market especially my SA manager who hates the place.

I was chatting to some of the guys and girls and they were discussing going out sightseeing as some of them were from Cape Town so hadn’t been to Jo’burg before. We plan to go the Lion park next weekend.

There were free beers downstairs in the canteen called NINO’s so I went down with the girls and chatted to some of the guys who all asked me how my head and nose were feeling after my accident on Thursday. My noise is still very bruised and red and hurts!

I left with one of the girls called Tauhir and went to her best mates place in Sunninghill to meet the rest of her friends – there were 5 of us altogether. We had dinner and went to their mate’s house party. All the flats are in secure gated communities and very nice. Some flats are designed especially for bachelors like this guys was, although I didn’t see anything that different about it. We left his place after an hour as it was very boring, everyone has such strong accents and they got stronger the drunk they got!

We left and went to a bar called Fashion Café TV in Sandton city. It was holding the Zoo bikini model finalist there. It was a good evening, Tauhir’s mate Eleez had so much attention. She looks like Iman (David Bowies wife). In the past she has been out with Enrique Inglasias’s agent and got to meet the guy and go out some parties with him and also got to met tons of other celebrities (I’m not in awe or anything just thought I’d build a picture) . It was crazy how many guys she met that night in Fashion Café, she got more attention than the models believe or not and she’s uber nice.

Saturday morning I met Nick in the foyer at 8.30am, we were driving to Andrew’s place where we would then go and take his and his brother in law – james’ 4x4 and go to Hennops to take the them on a offroad trail.

We took the route called ‘DongaLapa’ the word ‘donga’ meets ditches and there lots on this trail including mud-holes and steep ricky climbs, with also some wildlife along the way. You don’t realise how good of a driver you are until you have driven off road. Andrew and James were both good drivers. The first donga we got too, Andrew and James got out to take a look at how they would drive through it. It’s all about clutch control apparently. After they had driven thru it a couple of times, Andrew let me take a go at it – it was hard, I stalled 8 times! I finally made it over the donga, I had to give it more gas but at the right time.

The last donga was very very hard. The guy before us tried 4 times but in the end had to reverse his car out of the ditch. This made Andrew and james even more determined to do it! I think it took 15 trys for James to finally get thru it. It was hard as James’ 4x4 is heavy in the back so it was harder for his car to lift up over a steep ditch. Andrew was directing him all the way. It was hard as this donga had a 2 mud-holes, which makes the wheels very slick and hard to grip, even with the diff lock on (this is when the back wheels are locked to turn in the same direction - I’m learning stuff!)

We drove up to a camp and BBQ site and Andrew put some chicken on. We had donkeys come thru and these donkeys were very funny looking they were a cross breed. Some looked liked zebras!
It was a very tiring day and our drive back to Andrews we went past some shanty towns and its amazing how many there are and how they were setup. Apparently some of them even have B&B and the owners will take you around the town and help show you around which is a much safer way to explore the place.

All in all a good day. Went to the gym when I got back and watched the film Anaconda followed by the Texas Chainsaw Massacre - good TV, especially ‘Anaconda’, it was awful!

Sunday I headed for Sandton City Mall. It was huge! It was 2pm and I was starving having been to the gym in the morning I’d missed breakfast. I remember one of the guys at work telling me about a halal takeaway place in the food court called Kuaui. I got a beef wrap from there it was so nice!

Went to Woolworths – its nothing like the Woolworths back home its exactly like Marks and Spencers. Everything’s the same price as back home, probably because this is an expensive area, as I’ve read in the guide books. I met Tauhira and Eleeza at 4pm and headed to the cinema with them to a place called Monte Casino. This place is a bit like the Trafford Centre in Manchester, the ceilings are painted like the sky but inside its setup like Trocadero, all games and restaurants etc. Most of the place is set up like Little Italy, very cool. The cinema was really nice the seats are huge; my feet couldn’t touch the floor. We saw Oceans 13. It was a preview, apparently it had just literally arrived through customs so was delayed, the film started half an hour later than it should have. It was so good, really funny, much better than the second.

I got back at 9pm, I’d wanted to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2 at 8pm but had to settle watching it half way thru. I ordered beans on toast and relaxed with my tea. Training starts this week at work and one the UKDC managers is over this week to overlook it. I also got told that we’d be working overtime this week because of it….fun

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I walked into a glass wall....

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 09:24:19 +0200

I smashed into a glass wall last night running to the kitchen area. It was not funny. I made a huge thudding noise in the quiet office and those that were still there all laughed. My tea and hot chocolate went everywhere, but worst of all my forehead and nose had bruised up majorly. It was like someone had punched me, my nose was huge and I was scared it might be broken – not pretty. I had to run to the toilets and try and calm the bruising down by applying cold wet tissues to it – anything to make it better.

I had to walk back up to the office and there was a lot of people smiling at me and looking at my red forehead and big nose. This morning it was the same – urgh!

Apart from last nights exciting episode, my night was boring – gym and then room service. Desperate Housewives was on and I had beans on toast – yay! Some comfort food and I managed to get some English Breakfast tea.

I hope theres some drinks tonight or something. I’m even thinking of going to the city this evening and catching a movie on my lonesome. My manager is boring, he doesn’t do anything but work and he wears a weird trouser, shirt and tie combo. Can you believe he still hasn’t offered to take me out in the evening just to welcome me – loser.

Oh I made a friend yesterday, she’s from Cape town and called Tahira. This guy introduced me to her; he was telling me all the halal restaurants I could go to. She seems cool maybe a bit boy mad (not sure why, everyone here is like a 5 or maybe 6, although when you work with people in your office for a long time you find yourself liking the most strangest people, there’s a name for this I’m sure). She said I should let her know when I want to go cape town, I can stay with her and she’ll show me round – excellent. I’m thinking of going maybe in 2 weekends time.

Its sunny today but still chilly, I need to buy some tights I keep wearing skirts with no tights, all the girls here are wearing jumpers and I’m wearing a black high neck sleeveless number and maybe the only one wearing any jewellery too– I think they think I’m going to a party….wish I was!

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So far in Jo'burg...

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 13:22:36 +0200

I arrived in Jo’burg on Sunday (3rd June) had a hell of a check in, complete nightmare, had to pay £330 excess and throw away 2kg worth of stuff, I seriously over packed! But plus side is the experience made me a stronger women (seriously it did), I had a lump in my throat throughout this whole time but I didn’t breakdown, I even thought I’d miss my plan but I made it.

Got to my hotel at 10am on Sunday morning and it’s a nice Hotel. My room is pretty big with a huge bathroom which is fab. I just plonked my stuff in my room and headed straight to the gym, came back had a shower. I wasn’t feeling great, I already had a cold and I was freezing and ha a temp, so got in a blanket and ordered room service – grilled salmon with veg and potatoes – was nice but the salmon wasn’t cooked properly so had them take it back and they bought me back a bottle of red wine and now that’s just sitting in my room.

I took a wonder to see my office its literally a 2 minute walk and then went into the nearby shopping centre which is tiny, the huge one is in the city which is just a shuttle bus away. Went back to my hotel and slept till 8pm then woke up and watched a film on tv and then made tea and ironed some clothes for work and went to bed.

Monday I woke up at 7, got ready for work and headed for breakfast at about 8.15am. Its got a good selection of food, lots and lots and lots of fruit, which I took a bowl of and some fruit yoghurt. The tea here tastes funny, I might have a wonder later to see if I can get any PG tips they use a brand called Robust here – very funny tasting and so is the milk.

I was walking up the steps to the building which has really nice entrance and this huge rat ran past me – er yuk! Anyway got my passes and everything and met Nick the guy I’m working with and went to the 2nd floor, its a small room about 15 people and very quiet. I’m given docs to read first of all.

Theres this wierd guy who sits behind me and he is freaking me out, he just stares all the time and is just weird, haven’t really spoken to anyone else apart from a few hi’s here and there. Everyone so far is old with kids so not really any chance of making any lunch buddies anytime soon.

At lunch I take a wonder to the small shopping mall again, go into the supermarket an buy some fruit and take a trip to Subway as they really aren’t any type of sandwich places around. I hate Subway but order a tuna sandwich as I’m starving. I get to finish at 4.30pm as theres nothing else for me to do as everyone has work and plus a lot of people have gone home at 3pm!

Head back to the hotel go gym then head own to the restaurant and order a Thai mushroom curry which is very very nice but it supposed to be low calorie I don’t think it is!

Head back to my room and there is nothing on tv at all!! So I get my only DVD out – Love Actually and watch that with a cup of yukky tea and then bed at 11.30pm – fantastic.

On Tuesday its actually the same and I again leave at 4pm and head to gym, do a 13 miler which makes me happy as I’m finding it so difficult to eat the food here, theres no sainsburys or tescos or boots. Only a few things have nutrition labels on them which is crap. I find out that the hotel does halal meat so I have a grilled chicken breast with rice and veg for dinner. If they didn’t I was going to order beans on toast which is awful but it’s the only thing I woul have wanted. I thenhead up to bed and watch 24.

On Wednesday I have a longer day till 7pm and then I go and meet my 2 managers in a bar over the road, one of my managers – Andrew invites me to join his family and Nick for some Off road car action which sounds good at least I’ll be doing something this weekend.

For dinner I have grille tuna with rice and veg and then I manage to lock myself out of my hotel room, lucky I’m wearing clothes so I have to head to reception to get any key card. This guy in the lift starts talking to me about where I’m from. I haven’t met anyone from the UK yet.

Apparently next Tuesday there is a work social in the same bar we were in tonight. This bar is a hotel bar and its boring and small and is smokey. But at least there is something going on next week after work. I need to make friends fast so I lat least have a life out here.

My plans for the weekend are check out the city, check out the restaurants – yes I have to eat alone in them which is going to be very strange, I have to buy some books. Get some serious gym time. I got told by Andrew that I’ll have to work some weekends too as next few weeks are going to be so jam packed – fantastic but I suppose it will keep me occupied.

I need to also make plans to check out Cape Town, but I read you’re not supposed to go up the mountain on your own which is crap. How on earth am I supposed to explore if I can’t do anything on my own?!

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