NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Okay, so a week in the beautiful town of Howth proved just what the doctor ordered. After boarding our wonderful flight to Abu Dhabi both Prince Charming and myself started having the inevitable sniffles that only airplane air-conditioning systems can bring. With the help of some wonderful days in Howth, Dublin CBD and a country outing into Wexford we were right as rain for a last leg of the journey to New York City. However before the inevitable farewells began we were treated to a true Irish shindig in celebration of our marraige. Wonderful people, delicious food and broadway musical renditions of some old favourites, the night was fantastic and one for the memory banks! A fond farewell was said to Ireland and an excited couple boarded the plane for the final leg of the journey to New York City!

WOW! Okay, you'll have to bare with me here for a while because there are very few words that can actually describe the pulse of a city like New York. Firstly, after landing we took our lives into our hands by getting into one of the famous (and infamous) NYC yellow cabs. With our small african country's worth of luggage we held our breath as we speedily weaved our way from JFK airport into Manhattan over 59th Street Bridge. Now there is nothing that quite prepares you for your first sight of New York City. It literally rises imposingly in front of you from out of no-where, looks you dead in the eye and quashes all preconceived ideas you may have had of it based on movies and your own personal imagination. Imagine for a moment being stared down by pack of hungry alaskan wolves. Now translate that into hundreds of highrise buildings all showcasing what they have to offer, where they are located in the city that nevers sleeps and how much taller and more imposing each one is to the other. Now put yourself in that picture... feels like being eaten by a pack of wolves. You are tiny, you are in the busiest, most franatic, continously moving city in the world. It smells like the busiest kitchen in the universe might smell if it was cooking with elbow grease, paprika, diesel and good old American enthusiam! It engulfs you, seeps into your pores, re-calibrates the beats within the core of your heart and then releases you to your own devices. You smile, you glow, you look up and continually asses your size, you spin yourself in circles trying to take everything in and then finally you realise: You're in New York City Baby!

It smells like childhood dreams, tastes like the last perfect bite of your favourite meal and feels like the hugs your grandfather used to give you when you came over to save him from gran and her bridge friends! It sings your favourite songs into your ears, tells you all the jokes that make you laugh and reminds you it's amazing to be alive. And the people... they move like the beat of a drum. They are the rythmn that flows between the forest of buildings like an electric current getting as quickly and efforlessly from point A to point B. They never stop. The city is always bright, there is never a permanent evening, only a beautiful evening glow the presides over the city like the gods suggesting it may be time to sleep but that's up to you! It's wonderful, amazing, far beyond expectations and nothing short of breathtaking. It's New York City Baby! 

New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of
There’s nothing you can’t do
Now you’re in New York
These streets will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you
Hear it for New York, New York, New York

LASTS AND A WEE BIT OF IRELAND

A lot has happened over the last few weeks; as i'm sure you can gather from the tardiness in my writing; and for this I must apologise.  Since real work has ended there seems to have been a hundred and one things to achieve that take an inordinate amount of time and I find myself looking at the clock at 10pm and wondering where exactly the day has disappeared to. Whilst I will not bore you with the inevitable doctors appointments are cheerful staff at both home affairs and the traffic department (please note the vast amount of sarcasm linked with that sentence), I do want to tell you about the wonderful "lasts" I have had over the past few weeks.

Firstly, (and I have managed to maintain this for a consecutive 3 days) I have officially had my last hangover on South African soil (and at this rate the planet's!). After the wonderfully special shindig the parents threw over the course of the weekend, Prince Charming and I found ourselves amongst a group of fantastic friends and a very good party ahead of us indeed. Roll around Sunday and the inevitable hangover in the post (express delivery I believe), we managed to equalize the evening of dancing with a day firmly ensconced on the couch. SA Hangover - done!

We got our final cultural fix too when we spent our final day on the actual soil of SA basking in the wonderful beauty and sunlight that is Kirstenbosch botanical gardens. Friends and family were there to bid us farewell in true picnic style with champagne, cheese and biscuits and fond stories of the past few years we had together. Jokes and smiles abounded as we try desperately to avoid the inevitable tears that came with sundown and goodbyes. As we left the wonderful mountain and friends behind us, Prince Charming and I couldn't help but smile with excitement at what lay ahead of us in the next 24 hours.... If we had known what was actually coming we may have been crying too :)

Cue (hopefully our last) 27 hours of travelling, an exorbitant fee for over weight luggage (yours truly of course) and some very grumpy plane passengers to begin our life  changing trip to New York. First port of call, Johannesburg - The City of Gold. Or in our case the city we had to sit in, on a crowded plane, for 2 hours while waiting for some... more passengers, more cheerful staff, Elvis... I still can't tell you which but I can report unfortunately no Elvis sighting! Needless to say, we finally left Egoli rammed to the rafters with passengers on the long and arduous trip to Abu Dhabi.  A brief 2 hour stop in Abu Dhabi where I can report that city to be full of lights and that's it! We landed at some ungodly hour of the morning where usually we would be awake dancing, however alas we were awake grumpy. Thankfully that stop over wne twithout a hitch and we got back onto the plne for our last and final haul in Dublin. And what a flight... half the plane was empty so the inevtable 6 hour long movie marathon was discarded in favour of a 6 hour long nap across the plane seats, whoohooo!

Finally we set foot on Irish soil, collected our bags (of which there were numerous) and filled our over full tummies with some real Irish Breakfast. For all of those who know, or don't know, what is included in an Irish breakfast, forgive me for a minute. Black Pudding, really??? Ugh. Prince Charming was rather amused with my facial expressions when said breakfast piece arrived and proceeded to tell me it tastes exactly like boerewors. Well, if that's the case, yum. NOT! It tastes nothing like boerewors and never will. And when you find out what's it's made of, it makes hagas taste like chocolate cake! 

A quick shower and the decision to sleep was quickly overruled in favour of a lovely amble around the beautiful sea side town of Howth. Now for any of you who have never been to Howth (of which I assume is numerous) the town looks a lot like Hout Bay minus the bergies and scary fishmen. What is does have is a beautiful harbour and pier, noisy seagulls and a lovely air of community. Some fresh air and Prince Charming and I were ready for a celebratory class of champers. Or 20! Yip, what Howth also has is a wonderful community of people who all know each other and were ready to celebrate with the newly married couple!  7 bottles of the delicious Italian Prosecco, and few pints at the local Pub and a delicious home cooked meal, we saw our first day in Ireland in true Irish Style!

THE BEGINNING OF LASTS...

Arg, so I ran a half marathon this weekend! Believe me, I am asking myself the same question too, why? Originally it seemed like quite a good idea as it was going to be my last time on the trot with my running club and we had grand ideas of pulling off a mass finish amidst a flurry of cheers as we crossed the finish line to the glorious notes of Chariots of Fire! NO. There was fire, just not in the graceful sense originally envisioned. My lungs (which I now know have not fully recovered from my lovely bought of death flu) bypassed the “Let’s ache a little so she knows what she’s doing to us” and went straight for the “If you don’t refrain from this insane sport of yours immediately we will be forced to burst into flames and evacuate your chest cavity forth with!” Ouch would be a euphemism. Bother this really hurts would be a euphemism. To say I was cursing like a sailor… yip, euphemism too! And to add insult to injury, it was lashing rain. Internal inferno and external hypothermia… I know, I couldn’t imagine why someone would do it either! However, having said all of the above (as friends and family can attest I always do), it was bleeding marvelous! Thunder put it into perspective:

Thunder Struck: Why you walking like a penguin?
Me: Ran a half marathon this morning.
TS: Why?
Me: Was the last run with the running family.
TS: So you thought you would ease back into running after a 4 week break and pneumonia with a 21km run in the rain?
ME: Pretty much!
TS: Riiiiiiighttttt…

I do have a tendency to rush back into running because a) I really like it b) it’s the guilt for not having done it for so long and c) there’s usually a group breakfast involving pancakes which just cannot be missed! And whilst I do like to complain and over exaggerate the weather conditions (I swear we were in a hurricane with flying cows everywhere), I love the runs and the crowd and the scenery and am going to miss everything so much when we leave. When you suddenly realize you are doing something for the last time, it becomes something bigger than itself and very important to you. Am whist I’m not going to bore you with the nerves and stories of me counting all “my lasts” in SA, I am going to say a big thank you to my wonderful running family for being there for that last and for supporting me always.

Thank you guys!

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING BORROWED, SOMETHING BLUE

There is an old saying that goes “No news is good news”, meaning that when one hears nothing, then nothing bad can essentially be happening. This rings very true for me over the last few weeks as I have adopted the well practiced art of radio silence and arranged my life as calmly and quietly as possible. However, at some stage the bubble must burst and the news gets out, so let me apologize first hand if you did not hear it from me! But smile, because the news is good and happy and wonderful and everything that life should be!

To all my wonderful friends and family, I can officially announce on these here pages that my Prince Charming is in fact my Husband! He is every bit as wonderful as those fairy tales we all read when we were young and far better looking! (It’s at this point in the story I want you all to take a breath and relax, breath in, breath out etc etc). I can imagine this comes as a shock to some as in some circles I am known as the Anti-Christ of Marriage and I can appreciate the total lack of belief, but believe me, it is all true and my mind has been forever changed by the fact that I did indeed find The One.

We were married on Saturday August 7th 2010 at 11am at The 12 Apostles Hotel in Cape Town. The ceremony was extremely low key and perfect. Pint Size and Thunder were there to give me away and cry respectively, while Prince Charming was accompanied by his best man and ring bearer. Champagne and happiness surrounded a day where I can categorically say I have never been happier! We have officially been married for 12 days and it feels like the best dream in the world! I love being married. It's so great to find one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life ;-)

For the ladies out there I wore the following:

• Something old: Favourite long black dress
• Something new: Stunning black velvet peep toe stiletto’s
• Something borrowed: Hairclips from Thunder
• Something blue: A magnificent blue and purple rose in my hair

The next few weeks are packed with excitement and fun as we say goodbye to friends and family, see the things in SA we’ve always wanted to but just haven’t got around to organising and packing for the imminent move. Smile Peeps, life is good!

FINALLY SOME NEWS

Apologies to all for the radio silence and thank you to all for the continual requests to write! I have been slightly busy of late re-organising my life and putting some exceptionally exciting plans in motion. However I have a bit of breathing room at the moment and am ready to spill half the bean pot… Yes Peeps, the rumours are true, this Crazii Redhead has finally got her ass in gear and is moving to The Big Apple, The City that Never Sleeps… New York! And I’m not going alone either, my Prince Charming is taking the leap with me and we’re going to start a new life together in one of the world’s most exciting cities!

Before we embark on the epic journey that is New York, we will of course be spending time in Cape Town and Johannesburg with family and friends. A few parties will be had, not withstanding the annual Crazii Redhead clothing and shoe party where everything that hasn’t been worn in a period of 6 months must go! All ladies invited, men only after a good few hours of bubbles and girl banter! On the way, we’ll be stopping into Dublin and London to say hello and goodbye to important people in our lives and finally we’ll set down in The Big Apple for the next big adventure!

Important dates to bear in mind:

12th September 2010 – Pint Size’s Party
17th September 2010 – Crazii Redhead Annual Cleanout Party
19th September 2010 – Crazii and Prince Charming head to Dublin
26th September 2010 – Crazii and Prince Charming head to New York!

There will be more news in the days to come I promise. But in the interim if you have comments, contacts or just want to drop a note, please post!

Hugs all!

REACTIONS TO NEWS

Usually when you spring big news on people who would have expected to be hit by an iceberg before they heard what you’re about to say, they react in 3 ways:

1) Loud screaming followed by tears (usually happy)
2) Loud screaming followed by a beating (not good)
3) Pensive silence while they eye you up and down trying to figure out if it’s April 1st or not.

Thank heavens when I spilled the beans to Thunder, Pint Size and the GBF I was met with 150% reaction 1. Inevitably after the initial shock, they all swung into reaction version 3 thereby playing devils advocate and continually thinking they must be sitting in a Stanley Kubrick movie (“Something weird is happening here”). But fair play to them all, there was no malicious beating or archaic methods of torture for holding back such pertinent information, purely rational questioning and the occasional “OMG, I can’t believe it!” squells.

Now while I’m sure you’re all dying to hear what this news is, I have to I’m afraid keep the suspense going a little longer. You see, as both the Parents are out of modern communication range, they have yet to hear the news either. And I honestly think it would be both unfair and nasty to tell you all before I get to sit down face to face with them and explain everything.

So hold your breath a little longer Peeps, all shall be revealed soon…

TIME

Time. The intangible element that governs all things on this planet. When you need it, it speeds up; when you don’t, it slows down. It’s infuriating at the best of times (har har) and is just so annoyingly consistent that you wish you could alter or PVR it just for a second. Hold that moment in time when your breath was taken away, that smile that lit up your day, the moment just before the sunset… the list is endless. But, as science and religion can both attest to, you cannot. You either ignore the fact that is it there or try your damndest to make sure you fitted everything into life that you wanted to!

This is where I am now… making massive, exciting life changing decisions about work, relocation, 1 man and how many shoes I can pack! And honestly, it was tentively thought about for the last 6 months, that’s it. But 4 magical weeks ago an innocent conversation over the bar turned into the path I have been looking for my entire (26 years) tenure on this planet. At that moment the only way to explain it is this “you know when you just know that something in life is exactly what you want and you just have to follow it no matter where it takes you. Well I just know, and that’s where I’m going”. And Time, how do you think he feels about all of this, doesn’t give a rats ass!

So now begins the usual 6 month planning process of informing everyone, finding a new job, apartment, deciding what size suitcase to pack, meeting the friends and family and pretty much redrawing the canvas that has been life for the past 26 years. All in 6 weeks! And the kicker… I COULDN’T BE MORE EXCITED ABOUT ANYTHING!

When the details are all finalized, I promise to be less vague and give you a full update of what, when, where, how and with whom. Until then… smile with me!