Bye Bye, Blue Crush..... Bloggers, I need your HELP!

It's been an absolutely wonderful 5+ years with my beautiful Blue Crush surf mobile - she has taken me on some incredible journeys that I will never forget... so it with great sadness that I tell you that I had to say goodbye to her yesterday..... sniff sniff. It really does seem like just yesterday that I wrote THIS POST on this blog, letting you all know I got a new car! I love this car to the ends of the earth. Maybe it's silly to be quite so sentimental about a car, but I am. So many memories and experiences were had because of her... But... got to keep embracing the change that comes with this fresh start I've been offered in life 

heart emoticonSo Bye Bye, Blue Crush... 

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 So bye bye, Blue Crush. I hope your next owner loves you as much as I... 

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With the heartbreaking farewell of my beloved Blue Crush, came the welcoming to my new Golden Child...

This is the part where I need your help... 

Creative friends from the Blogosphere, please help me name my new car! 

Blue Crush was easy... 

a) she was blue

b) I surf

But now this new beauty queen needs a name and want it to be as unique as my last! 

So names like Sunflower, C3po, and bloody Gold Member are out.

It doesn't even necessarily have to contain the word 'Gold.' 

I want something boho but sophisticated for my new wheels.

I'm looking forward to hearing what you all come up with!

Dating Sites

It's always a wonderful feeling to visit my blog and see the last post I published being so positive - and to read all the incredible support and love from you guys too. 

The last few months have been a complete whirlwind and I updated you on most of it in my previous post. From Philippines where I survived earthquakes and typhoons to Indonesia where I got stranded to due the Mount Raung volcanic eruption... then heading back to South Africa where my engagement ended, being left completely alone to cancel an entire wedding I'd planned to the T, moving into my own flat, moving on with my life and finally getting diagnosed with measles, then chicken pox, then an allergic reaction to some medicine I was taking (basically I was just covered in bloody spots either which way). There were a lot of other things in between... but one thing I'd like to focus the post of today on is.... dating sites!

I've always been reeeeally skeptical about dating sites to be honest. You never know who is really on the other end of the screen, you know?

Anyway, with a trip to Cape Town planned (I fell head over heels in love with that city... my word), my plans with a group of friends got cancelled so I had an evening in Hout Bay, Cape Town all alone with nothing to do. So I did two things which changed my life forever. I downloaded Uber onto my phone, which is probably the coolest idea I've ever heard of.. it's basically a taxi service but it is SUCH a convenient and cheap way to make your way around the city!! 

The second thing I did was download Tinder. I'd never even considered getting it before. I had no idea how it worked but I had nothing to lose at this point in my life, so I poured a ginormous glass of wine in my little villa I was staying in all alone and thought to myself, 'Why the hell not?!'

Tinder....... I don't know if there are words apt enough to describe this app for your phone. It's hilarious!!! Basically, you're given a photo of a guy (or woman, whatever floats your surfboard...) and by judging them on looks alone you can swipe left if you don't like them and right if you do. If you aren't 100% sure then you can also click on their profile and they can upload a handful of other photographs linked to their Facebook accounts and you can read the brief biography they put up about themselves. 

A while ago I had this massive idea about starting a blind-dating television show with my friend Lucien. I was adamant to give everyone in life a fair chance to excel in themselves and produce their personalities and have the opportunity to find love without looks being the main factor. That idea got snatched away from me when Dating In The Dark aired.... still think mine would have been better though ;) 

My point was that there are so many quality people in the world with personalities to die for, people with disabilities or disfigurements who deserve a chance at love just as much as the rest of us - I didn't want to base the show solely around them but I wanted to include everyone from every background in life! I do understand there needs to be a physical attraction to the person you are going to be with in life - but I'd rather have someone with a personality I can truly connect with and be happy for the rest of my life with someone I consider to be my best friend, than be with some chiseled idiot who cares more about flab and carbs than I do. I find those sort of people mind-numbing.

So anyway, that being said, after swiping left and right on an uncountable number of men for about an hour and starting up conversations with the few that had swiped right on my photograph too - I started to feel really shallow and bad. I started to feel not myself. I don't base things on looks and here I was completely contradicting myself and what I believe in. So I considered deleting Tinder after literally one hour. I didn't though - I decided to stick it out, because I still had an entire evening to kill remember? 

Anyway - I wound up on a date (taking the Uber taxi to get to the restaurant) with an Italian Swiss supermodel. Good bloody Lord was he gorgeous.... but.... mind-numbing. The ENTIRE meal he was pulling at his nonexistent flab and telling me that he was on a diet. I was also so flipping nervous I barely ate a thing (which is a pity because it was one of the most divine looking steaks I think I'd ever seen). I was shaking so much throughout the date and just didn't know what to say - this is also because I just could not connect with him on any kind of level whatsoever. About half way through the date he started suggesting that I come with him back to his place for another glass of wine and so that I could give him a MASSAGE because his back was sore....... WTF!?! 

I kept saying no and telling him I won't but he would not give up - I eventually got back to my Villa (ALONE) in one piece and fully clothed thank God.

I make it sound worse than it is. It was fun and a very different experience to what I am used to, to say the least.

I spoke with a couple of friends about the site and they think it's basically just for people who are in a certain area for an evening and want a quick shag. I disagree though. I actually met a really lovely person through Tinder (not the model). Well - I say meet, but we haven't technically met face to face just yet.

After the initial heartache was over from Sam dumping me like a ton of bricks, I actually found that I have been thoroughly enjoying and reveling in my new life. I feel positive and optimistic!

I feel whole. 

I am not completed by another person for the first time in my life but rather I have filled up the voids and spaces people make for themselves - and I have filled them with myself.

I am actually happier than I think I have ever been at this point in time. 

Thank You's / Optimism and Why I Love Blogging

Aloha amigo's, I have news... and this time it's good! It's been a while since I've been able to say that. As many of my regular readers know, things have been pretty dismal lately what with having to be crammed back into reality after over a month of traveling Southeast Asia, returning to work and to an icy cold winter, having my engagement end, losing everything and having my Grandmother unexpectedly pass away. 

It literally didn't rain, it poured! In the process my flat got flooded (literally....) so yeah...... I haven't been in the best frame of mind recently BUT I've finally decided to put the past behind me. 

Grow from it. 

Learn from it.

Move on to a bigger, better, brighter future. 

You know, I have always been the type to have a good sense of humor. I find light in every situation. Granted, lately my sense of humor has been a delightfully confusing mixture of bitterness and funniness... with things like this having me laughing my ass off: 

(only because it is so scarily accurate)

As hilarious as I find that (really, I do), the arrival of Spring on the 1st September came the arrival of more optimism and hope than I have ever had before.

My news is that for the first time in a while, I caught myself smiling. 

Really smiling. 

It wasn't put on. It wasn't fake. It wasn't because someone was trying to make me laugh - I was just smiling.  

New fringe and all! :)

Why?

Because life is good! 

Life is beautiful.

The sun is out, the birds are chirping... I'm just feeling great. No one else is making me feel great, I'm making me feel great - and that's what's amazing. They say that you need to love yourself and be happy within yourself before someone else can love you, before you can share your happiness... and that smile that's been creeping up on my face over this past week is proving to me that I am finally happy again. I am working hard - keeping focused, planning new travels and adventures. I'm enjoying time with friends. Seriously, Lucien, Kyle, Chelsea, Rob, Chanel, Rene, Bernie, Claire, Ashley, Lydon, Jess, Jessie, Rhain, Sandy, Jean-Marie, Tara and all of you guys have been absolutely mind-blowing to me over this tough time. I am so overwhelmed and blessed to have so many amazing friends and family supporting me and making sure I don't lose sight of my goals, my happiness. You've all wiped away my tears, cuddled me close, made me laugh, spoiled me rotten and gotten me through this. I could not be more thankful to each and every one of you. 

Thank you.

To my blogging friends scattered all over the world, your comments and emails and just pure love has been incredible to me. I hope you all know just how special you are and I am so, so happy that I 'met' you all. 

Blogging is amazing isn't it????

I was really hurt and really upset for the last two months and I think that showed on my blog - this old tatty site that pretty much has my entire life documented over the past 5 / 6 years. Honestly, this blog has seen me through so so much. If I look back at the very first posts from 2010, it told my story of becoming a woman. Leaving those God awful teenage years behind. Getting my first job after finishing my studies. My blog holds the story of the first time I fell in love, the first time my heart was broken. It shows my development in surfing and my passion and drive to stand up on that board on a wave!


It has my story of the first time I lived with a partner. It has the story of how that ended. It gives me the funniest reminders of the time I hooked up with an actual famous rock-star and didn't even know it (we're still friends today, hey Jason!).
My blog has so many delicious recipes that I can come to find if I ever want to cook one of my favorite meals for a friend (they're obviously really privileged if I do haha!).
My blog has videos of me doing really random crap or just talking away like a rambling idiot but it's something I'll look back on at 80 and smile. It has every travel experience documented (besides Bali, Thailand and Singapore because I haven't got around to that yet).
It has my endless rambles of wanderlust and wanting freedom and fun in my life. It will contain so many more beautiful stories of travel and experience - because I will live my life to the absolute fullest and enjoy every single moment of it.

My blog is my life. It's really that simple.

People ask me why I love blogging so much - that is why. I can look back on my life and smile, laugh, cry and be proud whenever I want to. I can share my experiences with the world! It is the most expressing, liberating thing and I couldn't imagine my life without it.
Now, my blog is growing with me - taking me through a new story that had a tremendous amount of pain involved. A story about a love that was way too fast, way too intense. An engagement that ended and the shocking nastiness that came after that... but now that story is coming into fruition and it's good. It's the part where I take back my life, gain my strength and move on.

It's happy. It's me!

Another chapter is drawing to a close - and I'm excited for the fresh new page of endless possibilities.