Discovered it through this Mahala article, which you should probably read. Maybe liking Disco Taxi is un-PC, but as one of the ‘born frees’, I just wanna dance, and this is catchy as hells yeah.
“I understand why my friends are single, I just don’t understand why I am…”
Such cutie matooties! Scarlett was auditioning for Jumanji (she didn’t get the part) and Natalie for The Professional.
Love that Tiffany & Co commissioned power blogging couple Garance Dore & the Sartorialist to shoot images for their ‘True Love is Everywhere’ campaign. Very pretty, lovely feeling to all of them. Plus their third-party perspective brought something fresh to the Tiffany work. Great idea on behalf of the brand by playing to the bloggers’ strengths, namely photography. I see a lot of brands putting bloggers in ads, making them talk and sing and dance and host evenings when really, bloggers are bloggers. Let them do what they do best.
PS. I’ll bet Tiffany paid them to take part in this campaign. And rightly so. That’s called a ‘blogger budget’. And it’s real!
Please enjoy this handy Black Tie dress code from BallTrotter, the site that attends and covers the most glamourous of balls worldwide, which will come in handy for next weekend’s 5 for Change event. Have you booked your ticket yet? You can do so here. See you there!
Just a few fantasy-triggers for those of you at work. Some scenes from recent times at a secret beach.
Think granadilla lollies and spring water that has gone warm because it’s too hot and a heat warning sign on your iPhone.
Everyone squashed up close as the tide comes in
Another dip in paradise? Don’t mind if I do.
End it all off with a nap under the trees.
A gloomy New Year's Day - 2012 is the year of changing up my exercise
I’m a creature of habit. I love being able to run a distance, say 10kms, and then run it over and over and over and over again. I like being able to predict my highs, when my calves will get stiff. I like knowing how awesome I’m going to be feeling at the end of it. And at the end of it, I like knowing that I’m going to do it all again soon, and then allowing myself to stuff my face because 10kms means I can consumer 700 extra calories (let’s talk prego rolls at AndUnion, or Miss K cupcakes, see below).
nom nom
This enjoyment of doing something over and over isn’t all bad – it’s pretty much how I got myself to run in the first place and to push my distance further and further. The thing is, you do this for 6 months, and your body stops responding (so annoying! but anyway). Running 10kms becomes the serotonin-drenched equivalent of lying on the couch, as far as your body is concerned. Sure it keeps the weight off and it makes you happy and clear-headed, but it doesn’t make things tight and ripply. I have no desire to have a super muscled body-builder’s physique, but I like being able to see a little bit of definition when my body moves. This is what I call tight and ripply.
An average day running on the promenade. Not hard to see why one would want to repeat it.
I’ve recently been convinced by James, the owner of Roark Gyms to change up my exercise program and see what kind of results I’d get. So I threw in some kettle bell, and cut my traditional cardio (running / spinning) from an hour to 30 – 40 minutes. I added some wall balls (throwing and catching a weighted ball against a wall, throwing it out of and catching it in a squat position), and a lot of air squats (squatting with my hands above my head). 15 – 20 minutes of this 3 times a week and I saw a change in my body after three weeks, without changing my diet.
The biggest breakthrough for me this past year is realizing that squatting (with just your hands up or with a weight above your head) is like the Mr Muscle of training movements. It flattens the tummy, helps make a small waste, contributes to the development of a Beyonce bum and nicely shapes out your thighs. You can make it more hectic by increasing the weight you hold over your head, or running between sets. Of course, creature of habit that I am, I now just want to do squat-based training all day every day, but I will diligently push through this urge and find news ways of pushing my body. More coming soon.
As a writer, I’m privvy to the bemoaning of the local publishing industry.
“Unless you’re writing about Nelson Mandela or tough times on a farm or have your cover made out of beads, you won’t get published, and you won’t sell” is the general consensus. It’s quite depressing. Publishers are also pretty upfront about the fact that they won’t put any marketing weight behind original fiction that somehow does not ride the ‘Apartheid is over’ bandwagon. Sure the ‘Spud’ unicorns happen once in a pig flying over a blue moon, but mostly it’s a struggle. Local authors who want to achieve success in fiction are forced to look overseas for support – and very often, they get it (because their work is actually good – fancy that!).
Which is why I’m thrilled that local blog I Wrote This For You, who published with I Read I Write has found success on the iTunes poetry charts, appearing no less than 151 times, more than once at No 1 (outselling Charles Bukowksi, possibly my favourite poet of all time).
On iTunes, I Wrote This For You was the best selling book of poetry over the Christmas period in America, the UK and Canada. No mean feat for an SA writer who began his book with a blog. And also the first South African poet to achieve that. It’s very inspiring, since I’m investigating the best way to go about publishing my own book.
Click here to get the links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iTunes pages where you can buy the book. It’s available for kindle, iPad and in paperback. I’ve ordered my copy. If you’re not familiar with I Wrote This For You, it’s a collection of poetry moments and images, all written by Iain Thomas (@pleasefindthis on twitter), with photography by Jon Ellis.
The Mount Nelson Hotel, Orange Street
A bulldoggy in the water
Swimming time at the secret beach
Keeping cool by the pool in Tiffany’s from Sunglass Hut
Tanningphernalia
Ah we’ve had a beautiful summer. It’s been cooler than usual but not complaining, it’s been warm too. Have you had a good time? Were you visiting CT? What did you get up to?
