But for now, I’d like do my 20 things… I saw Jeanette did hers and I loved it! So i thought I needed to do one as well… here it goes…

20 things that make me happy

1. Getting a kiss on my nose

2. Coming home from work and having tea and gossiping with my best friend

3. going dancing with the girls!!

4. cuddling up on the couch with my boyfriend

5. having coffee and long chats with my mom

6. going on holiday to the seaside!

7. getting a “pat on the back” for work well done

8. realising that the first campaign that I ran… people actually saw what I did!

9. Reading my sisters blog

11. listening to the rain when I’m sleeping

12. buying shoes! and clothes! and MAC makeup!!!

13. snuggling into a blanket on a cold winters night

14. connor saying “HELLO LAINY” when I come home, and Erin calling me “LAINYBUGS”!!!

15. helping Bradley write and spell words (even though I’m not that good at it!)

16. coming out of a pilates class

17. having bubble baths

18. swimming in summer

19. summer evening Braai’s with my friends

20. watching the sunset

and one more…

21. having a cup of tea after a long day at work

WOW is all I can say. They have really taken webpages to a new level! Nando’s have always been synonymous with excellent marketing. Their latest marketing viral campaign featured the result of the FIFA Confed Cup. Obviously Brazil beating USA 3:2. Fantastic isn’t it? (don’t forget to read the small print at the bottom of the ad)

Anyway back to their site. It’s so funky! They are even starting a recipe book online, so you can send them your Mediterranean recipes and they post it in their book… its fantastic!

check it out… http://www.nandos.co.za/ (seriously, and spend a little bit of time there, there are so many things to click on and interact with!

Last night I went to my evening Pilates class. I do pilates every Monday and Thursday evenings now that I’m working. My best friend and I used to go to gym everyday and either do Pilates or play squash, and now that work has started I find it impossible to keep the gym thing going. So I found out that my pilates teacher does private classes ( ) so I could go in the evenings.

I love the way pilates moves my body. I did ballet for 13 years and had to make a very hard decision that it was time time to stop a few years ago. I had 2 injuries and being at varsity demanded more time than I could handle. So the ballet era of my life ended and since then I have missed it very much.

However, the one thing that keeps me going is the pilates. For the hour that I am there I can completely forget about what’s going on outside the room, and I can stretch my body and work the muscles which always feels so great afterwards.

Anyhoo… last night we did a stretch class. We did about 15 min of warm up with the ball, then began the long stretch class. It was so great… my teacher is also an ex-ballet girl so she does all the stretching we used to do. I struggle a little with some stretches because my injured hamstrings still give me some hassles (even though it was years ago since I hurt them). But the pilates is helping alot with taking the pain away. Anyway, we do this once strange stretch (that I absolutely cannot explain in words, I would need a diagram! ) then while I’m doing it, Paula says “for those who feel like it, you can move into a full split”. hmmmmm I think, I wonder if I could do it? Well surprise, surprise… I got so close!!! I was so so proud of by body and my legs to even remotely try and do a full split! I was so happy!

So now I’m going to keep pushing the boundaries until I can get flat in the slits again. It felt so good after the class, I really felt like I had accomplished something! I know it may seem silly to you, but being able to that is a huge improvement for my damaged hamstrings and I feel like I haven’t completely lost my ballet training all together!

The first is at the end of the month. We are going to the Drakensburg Sun for 4 days. Bryan has never been to the Drakensburg, so I can’t wait to show him how extremely beautiful it is there. It is definately one of my favourite places in SA. It’s a pity that we are going in winter though. Summer in the ‘burg is spectacular and you can use the good weather to your advantage… hiking, horse riding, swimming, sun downers in the evening overlooking the mountains. But anyway, I’m sure winter will be just as good… we’ll just have to light a fire and snuggle with blankets in the evenings. Our friends Robyn and Mark have just come back from their Drakensburg trip, so they have some good places that we can go visit while we are there.

The second trip is to Cape Town. It was a last minute decision over the weekend. I’d love to see my family and we got an AWESOME deal on flights and car hire.

We don’t really have a plan yet, but it’s only in October so i have lots and lots of time to plan the trip I think for the first few days I’d like to visit my Aunt and Uncle in Hermanus. Bryan has never been there either (even though he lived in Cape Town for 3 years… I know it’s ridiculous ). We will be going just in time to see the end of the whale season, which will be brilliant.

This is Hermanus (beautiful isn’t it?)

The next 3 days/nights we are going to stay with my other Aunt and Uncle in Somerset West. I have not seen them in ages (it’s been WAY too long), and I really need to see my cousin. We always got on so well as children, but living so far apart is horrible when you grow up. So I think that will be GREAT fun… no dought it will involve wine tasting and beach trips and more fun in the sun! I really can’t wait!

The pity is I have to wait 4 weeks for Drakensburg (sigh) and 3 months for Cape Town (even bigger sigh). At least I have something to look forward to though.

I just can’t believe how much I have been thinking about a holiday lately. I think it’s because I actually have never worked for a period of 6 months without a holiday (being in varsity and all). So I really can’t wait to spend these weekends relaxing and having fun!

I have a absolute love for riding. It gave me so much joy for so many years and just having 5 minutes on Warrior was enough to make me miss it soooo much!

I’m not sure why I feel like I miss it so much today, but I needed to get my mind off it so I decided to post a pic. I go through days that I have this craving to be outside of the office, riding my horse in a veld. Sigh

I know I’ve shown some of the pics before, but I thought i’d share these ones as well…

So anyway, on Sunday i started the dreaded flu, and on Monday I attempted the day at work. I lasted all of four hours and had to leave.  I decided that I should be a good girl and go straight to the doctor so I could get some anti-biotics and get this flu done and dusted quickly. So I went to the doc on Monday eve and got my meds happy to believe I’ll be good by Wednesday.

It was a public holiday in SA yesterday (thank god) thinking it was a good time to get sick cause I could rest and be good for work the next day. But yesterday morning I woke up to a HUGELY swollen face!!!!!! HELP!!!!! I looked like a chipmunk storing food for the winter!

After rushing off to the doc again yesterday morning, i was told that I had formed an allergic reaction to the Penicillin in my Anti-biotics which caused the swelling. I’ve been on this same anti-biotic before and never had a reaction before. The doc said that your body sometimes just decides that if you  have one anti-biotic too often your body forms a reaction to it. Last year I was on it for a long time because I had Glandular Fever.

Anyway, so I was a chipmunk for the day yesterday! I had an injection of cortisone which seemed to help and was booked off work until Thurs to let the swelling subside. I’m still a little bit swollen today so hopefully by tomorrow I’ll be chipmunk free! 

…Chipmunk OUT!!!

My budget was finally finalised! Thank god! Ive spent the last 3 weeks sorting out invoices and spend from the past year… but that is finally sorted and I can now concentrate on next years budget! YAY

My permanent position got approved!!! WHOOP WHOOP. I can take a deep sigh of relief now, and I can now finally get my degree (I’m very happy ). I really have found my first job to be a challenge, but a good one at that! It has taught me so much and I’ve actually put what I learned into practise which is what I needed. I feel so much part of the team here and I’m grateful that they have opened up their arms to me so that I can be part of the team permanently now. Yes, there are some other parts of marketing I want to explore, but for the here and now, this is perfect!

… But finally the day has calmed and I have some spare time to guzzle some soup, catch up on my blogs and check my calender before I leave.

I try to leave before the 4 o’clock rush. Town on a friday is manic and it really doesn’t allow for a great start to the weekend to be sitting in traffic (in the freakin building  for goodness sake) for an hour or so.

Tonight Bryan and I are going to KongRoast for dinner. We have been dying to go there since Jeanette and L went a few months ago… The place serves mainly asian cuisine, but you choose to either sit on the “kong” side or the “roast” side of the restaurant. Both ends have different decor and different menus, but you can eat whatever you like from both kitchens no matter what side of the restuarant you sit on! Sounds great ‘ey?

So…my weekend should start off well enough! I couldn’t get off work on Monday, so no long weekend for me

Anyway, have a great weekend inspite of yourself

xxx

So Bryan and I decided to go as skiiers! we thought that we could be ‘Bon Voyaging” to some awesome skiing place in Sweden! We looked really good!

Bryan and I

Others dressed as pilots and air hostesses. Very clever costumes! Leanne and Dave had the best outfit! They looked gorgeous!

Dave and Leanne

The pilots

There was even a terrorist!!! ha ha ha. He was carrying a bomb and everything. If you wondering how he managed to get such a full beard its quite disgusting. His mother works at a doggie parlor so all the hair is actually fur glued on with pritt! Need I say more!

terrorist and frightened pilots

Alex and Natalie came as a business man and his sectretary! ha ha ha!!! Unfortunately I don’t have a pic of them.

But the party was awesome. They make great gluvine and caphirina… so you can only imagine how the evening ended! We danced until the morning and had a wonderful party! Thanks guys can’t wait for next year!

Check out some pics from the party…

He's going on the "cane train"

Rich and Bry

eeeekkk

Nat and Richie

oh dear!

swedish ladies!

me and my best friend!

love and kisses

xxx

It was a great evening for me to meet some of the media and marketing guys that I am so inspired by. Bryan came with me which was really good for him aswell. He really needed to mingle with some of the guys in the IT field. We found some very interesting people to chat to. One of them was the owner of Vitaminwater. He was a bubble of energy and really exuded a love for his product! I really respect people like that! I hope oneday to have as much passion as they do for their brand!

The evening was organised as usual by Mike Stopforth (and his company Cerebra) along with the sponsorship of Vitaminwater. They did an awesome job… we had free food (which was good to warm us up on the chilly winter evening ) and free Vitaminwater cocktails on the house. Was great, thanks guys!

Mingling at the dinner

Mike Stopforth

What was also a great addition to the evening was that Vitaminwater has set up this group of ‘grannies’ (as they put it) to knit beanies for the those in need. There were a whole lot of these beanies for us to take. They were great to keep our heads warm on the night, but we promised to pass them on to someone who needs it more than we do. Bryan and I are looking for someone to pass ours on to… I’d like to give it to a child because I know how freezing they must be in this weather!

Bryan with Beanie

me!

Anyway, another very interesting person who I hope to have more comms with in the future was Llew from Clickatell. He inspired some great ideas in mobile marketing! He a short presentation on what Clickatell actually does and how to use mobile marketing effectively. It was very interesting and it definately opened my eyes to the idea of customised marketing messages being sent via sms. So thanks Llew for the great insight!!

So it was a great night and I can’t wait for the next one. I hope Jeanette can come with next time!

…