Dizzy Dee

Apart from all the cliché songs they play here in South Africa (ABBA - Happy New Year ect.), New Year’s is quite cool. My family usually prepare themselves very thoroughly for it. Preparing enough food for an army, and then in the afternoon everyone takes a nap. At about 6pm we’d all have dinner together, and then just sit around and chat until midnight, when we all have champagne, and wish each other a happy New Year. That’s always such an emotional time for me - I don’t know why.

Whils1 waiting we talk about all the funnies and sads of the year. All the moments that stand out. This year however I won’t be spending New Year’s with the whole of my family. Some of them are overseas at the moment, which makes it a bit impossible to get everyone together.

Although I really miss them, at least I still have some family here, and we’ll be spending the evening together. We’ll probably do the same food-wise, and take a nap during the afternoon, and then - like always - have champagne at midnight.

There’s something so magical about this time of the year. The fireworks, the time spent with family. The warmth of the South African summer. Something so nostalgic about it. New Years even has an aroma of its own. Wood burning on the fire. Ice cream. Wine. Pizza. Marshmallows. Lots of snack. Always time spent in good company.

I hope you all have a fabulous New Year’s Eve. Enjoy the time you spend with your family. Appreciate the shared laughs and meals. The best memories are made of times like this. Happy 2007!!

I’ve just realized that its my blogging anniversary. I started this blog in December 2005 (not sure about the date), but guess what? Its been a year? I can’t believe how quickly time has gone by. I think this is my 100th post already

Okay, maybe that’s not so much for a year, but still. If you consider that I work full-time, and most evenings I stay at work a bit later, I suppose 100 / 365 days ain’t that bad? For me its crazy to think that I’ve already thought up 100 titles, and published 100 times. Sat here, and waited for comments, anticipating. Some posts never even got comments, but lately I’ve got some very loyal readers, and I want to thank you all for your kind comments. For those of you who’s comments were not so kind. Thank you for challenging my way of thinking. I appreciate each and every one. Okay, I’m lying. I don’t appreciate the spams

I’ve found some awesome fellow bloggers who’s blogs I read regularly. The majority of my traffic comes from BlogMad, but I also get some visitors from 25peeps, blogexplosion and blogadvance. Every now and again I get a visitor from google too, most of the time someone who searched for “posh” - lol.

For those of you who don’t know, I started blogging because I joined BlogMad, the wrong way round I guess, but it still worked out I’m glad that I’ve spent time to reflect on my thoughts and events. If I bore you I’m sorry, but I can really see how far I’ve come in this year. If I read back on some of my old posts, I can’t believe that I actually wrote THAT.

Again, thanks for all the loyal visits, hope to see you around!!!

LoL - I found this on Cind’s Blog - Dont you think its just HILLARIOUS!?!?

Thanx for sharing Cind

Its my last day of work for 2006, and I had to come up with something fun!! Even though we’re having boerewors rolls for lunch, I still had to do something more FUN. Last night I was pondering all the possibilities. Eventually the prank that stuck with me was colouring our milk. Seeing that we use long life milk (in boxes), you don’t see the milk untill you start pouring it into your coffee. I put some food colouring in each kitchen’s milk this morning - green downstairs, and blue upstairs. So far I’ve had 2 victims, no screams though - they were both men, so that’s fair enough. I’d LOVE to see someone pour that over their breakfast cerial though. LOL. I suppose I’m just not in the mood for work today. I’m even wearing casual clothes!…

I’ll let you know if I hear any shrieks from the kitchen. LOL. I honestly dont know what I would do if I found myself pouring blue milk into my coffee. Good thing I don’t use milk at all What would you have done?

I haven’t posted a ‘report‘ about BlogMad in ages, so I’m going to try and update you on it as best I can.

I have thought it good to compare BlogMad to its competitors, thus the reason for the length of this post - I do apologize if I bore you.

BlogMad is a traffic exchange site, which offers a 1:1 ratio. The main competitor, as stated by Wikipedia, is BlogExplosion. The other site that I’m using for this comparison is BlogAdvance.

The main difference between them?

Surf Ratio’s: The 1:1 surf ratio that BlogMad offers, contrary to the 1:2 surf ratio of BlogExplosion. BlogAdvance recently changed they’re surf ratio, which is now also 1:1 (previously 1:1.5)

For those of you who look at this type of service from a ‘feature‘ perspective, here are the features that BlogMad currently offer:

• Free membership
• Integration with del.ico.us
• BlogMad toolbar for Firefox
• Credits can be bought -so there’s no need to sit and surf for hours on end!
  
• Internal messaging service in BM
• Shoutbox - where you can communicate live with the fellow BM members
  
• Voting for blogs by means of VARB (Blogs are rated out of 10)
• Games - with which you can win credits
• The Lottery, though it counts under a game, I just had to mention it
• A free RSS reader
• Revvr video’s - for which you get credits too if you upload!
• Blogs and users are listed in directories, so you can go straight to the blogs / users that interest you.
• A complete category can also be ignored, as well as individual blogs
• They’re also launching eXlinks the famous, well kept secret - another way of boosting your traffic BIG TIME!
• There are currently 7000 members on BlogMad and 4000 active blogs - so you won’t end up viewing the same blogs all the time. I was just surfing on BlogAdvance, and FOUR times in a row did the SAME blog come up!!!?

BlogExplosion gets 5 bonus points for effort, but it hasn’t exactly won me over. It seems to crash a lot. While surfing during the day I had to re-login about 10 times? I also find that the community of members don’t know each other. I have never even been welcomed by either BlogAdvance or BlogExplosion, but BlogMad people make a constant effort to welcome new bloggers. For now, that’s it. I do apologize if I’ve missed something - please help me right No offense to the other traffic boosters, but BlogMad is, and always will be my favourite. Do yourself a favour, and visit them straight away

Here I am again on 25peeps - see for yourself

Please remember to click on my photo; the more you click, the longer I get to stay on there.

25peeps is a great way to boost traffic to your site, and its 100% FREE!

A sickening story that I just had to share with you. For the non South Africans, if you don’t already know, the #1 reason why people in SA are migrating is crime. Here’s one of the most grusome stories I’ve read so far.

A Pretoria family spent more than five hours watching in horror as police removed what was thought to be the body parts of their four-year-old daughter from the walls of a hair salon where they were entombed.

The Majola family’s ordeal, which was played out in front of hundreds of Mamelodi residents late on Tuesday afternoon, began moments after Connie Ncube’s alleged killer Lorenzo “Eric” Ngoveni was whisked to the scene from the Pretoria magistrate’s court under heavy police guard.

Ngoveni, a Mozambican who is believed to be living in South Africa with a fake passport and identity document, was arrested last weekend at his Mamelodi shack after a neighbour overheard his girlfriend threatening to tell police about his alleged crimes.

Connie’s mutilated body was found floating face down in a stream near her Nellmapius home nearly two years ago.
Her killers had gouged out her eyes and hacked off her eyelids, breasts, genitals, bellybutton and lips.
The community’s outrage was further sparked after police delayed searching for Connie despite her mother Maria Majola repeatedly phoning and going to the Silverton police station.

Baying for Ngoveni’s blood, Mamelodi residents watched on Tuesday as sniffer dogs from the Pretoria, Soweto and Johannesburg search and rescue units searched for traces of Connie’s mutilated body parts.

Search and rescue members, under the watchful eye of detectives from the national serious and violent crime unit’s psychological section, carefully searched Ngoveni’s half-built hair salon.

The salon is opposite the Pienaarspoort train station, next to the Lesedi Day Care Centre and the Carmel Christian Fellowship church.

The psychological unit is made up of a team of crack detectives who investigate muti killings and serial murders and rapes.

Police armed with sledge hammers, angle grinders and chisels hacked at the ash brick walls of Ngoveni’s salon after two sniffer dogs indicated several areas - which two State witnesses had earlier pointed out - from which the scent of rotting flesh emanated.

Ncube’s mother collapsed in hysterics as police began pulling chunks of cement, mixed with what seemed to be human flesh, from the broken walls.

Police filled three evidence bags with the dark brown and black chunks.

Crying out in disbelief and horror nearly 500 onlookers, who were kept at bay by police armed with semi-automatic assault rifles, screamed for Ngoveni to be handed over to them to be punished.

“The man is a devil. He must be burned,” screamed two women as police rushed him to a police van.

A visibly shaken Majola, who was seen repeatedly thanking the police, said she was glad to get closure.

“I just want this to be over. I want to be able to bury my baby properly. I want to be able to say goodbye to her. I want to know that she is safe with God,” she said while being held by her mother Elina.

A detective, explaining why body parts were “built” into the buildings of new businesses, said it was done in order to attract customers.

“It is believed that the victim’s eyes will help potential customers to see the new business while the lips and tongue will spread the word that a new business is being operated,” said the detective.

Police spokesperson Inspector Anton Breedt confirmed that several bags containing an unknown substance had been removed from the demolished walls of the salon after sniffer dogs had reacted “positively” to the strong smell.

He said they could not comment on the substance until it had been analysed at the police forensic unit.

“The collected evidence has been sent to our forensic laboratory in Silverton where it will be analysed,” he said.

Commenting on Ngoveni being in possession of a fake South African passport and ID, Breedt said they were looking into the matter.

Breedt appealed to anyone with information on the identity or whereabouts of others involved in Connie’s murder to come forward.

Why is it that people spend so much time reading up about celebrities? Britney Spears, Victoria Beckham (aka Posh Spice), Paris Hilton… that’s what people google for each and every day. Their newest hairstyles, diets, lovers, and scandals. Though these are beautiful women, its nothing to praise them about! Beauty is inhereted. You can’t change what you look like (if you’re a normal person, and not a plastic, botoxed celeb). What you can change is the person you are. What you do, how you live, and how you treat those around you.

Celebrities are hardly the type of people who I would see as role models. Maybe I’m just picky, but somehow I don’t understand how people can be so in awe of celebrities. Yes they look beautiful in magazines - probably because they’re so photoshopped, that you wouldn’t know about half their scars and blemishes. Yes, they have a lot of money, but they probably just have really wise financial advisers. These people give to charity, yes, but if you consider the percentage that they give, its not that much? People like Oprah obviously give more, but the average celebrity doesn’t give up that much. They don’t make a sacrifice to give to charity. Still living in the stuck up mansions of Hollywood, eating only the best, and wearing what none of us can even dream of touching! How convenient is it for them to give a couple of dollars to charity, and not really worry about the people who are out there struggling. People who die of hunger, while they just worry about what they look like.

Why is it then that so many people are so fond of these idols, who are barely happy themselves. A lot of celebs struggle with drugs, and like we all know, most of them are in unhappy relationships - sometimes even 4th and 5th marriages, anorexia and other eating disorders isn’t unknown to these wealthy stars either.

If I had to choose a real role model, it would definitely NOT be one of the sexy, slim, and toned Hollywood fames. I’d much rather look up to a successful, happy, and NORMAL person. Someone who deals with the same struggles as I do, and conquer them. Someone who really has to put it all out there in order to gain. Someone who can’t just go for botox, face lifts, and who knows what else to beautify themself. Someone who’s more beautiful from the inside, than the outside. Someone who dreams big dreams, and spend their time making their own, AND other people’s dreams come true. That would be my role model.

Still, when it comes to picking role models, the shallowness of our society points only in one direction, America’s favourite Hollywood stars.

For the past three weeks I’ve been cutting down on the coffee. If you read my blog regularly, you’d remember my post about coffee a while back; aka Kill The Coffee. Back then I used to have about 5 - 8 cups of 100% pure coffee every weekday. There are various reasons why coffee is bad for you. For me, the main reason was this: