I knowIknow I know I said

I'd give you a running commentary on the history and formation of the PAC the last time I was here. But you can wiki that for yourself. I have a somewhat more pressing matter than an almost defunct political party to discuss.

Recent weeks have seen me being forced to participate in my most hated activity. Shopping.

I had this discussion with the delightful Prixie the other day too. Am I the only one who does NOT want to relive 80s fashion? Am I the only one who has enough taste and good sense not to want to wear a hot pink, bridal satin bubble skirt? And skinny jeans ('nuff said? And those crinkle tops that looks like something is has shrivelled up on you? And plastic shoes? Let me not even get started on the cap and puff sleeve phenomena. Just because Anne of Green Gables spent half her childhood crying for them, does not mean we all want to wear it.

Somewhere in the 90s I read that the 80s will be remembered as a decade devoid of taste and style. Why revive it? Most of the people who have embraced the 80s look are those too young to have remembered the atrocities of it, and they think the mini party dress ala Kylie Minogue in the "Ishouldbesoluckyluckylucky" video is "kewt" and "kewl".

I really dunno about all of you out there, but I cannot find anything remotely near wearable in any store. I don't like the shimmery and shiny stuff and I don't do the big bold prints either. Another problem I find in SA is that all the stores seem to stock the same kinda stuff. So in essence, everyone dresses the same. You can look at a person walking into a room and think "Edgars", "Woolies", "Truworths" because the stock is so rotated and even the prints are available in most chain stores, maybe just with a different style design.

This recent battle to find stuff worth buying, has made me consider something I haven't done in a while (and the thought scares me), do I pull out my machine and start stitching up my own creations? Or am I missing the point of the revival thingy somewhere along the line?


On the plus side though, after the horror of the 80s- came the 90s :)

Have a happy 2008 folks
rah*

Close Encounters of the Fan Kind

As weird as the following tale will sound, please be rest assured that as weirded-out as you will be, I was more so weirded-out. Right now, back to business.

I was going to do this one press release style, but hey I don't take myself seriously enough to do so. And it seems very lame now, though it was funny on Sunday. To the point, yeah get on with it, say the voices.

What is it with Blaaaaahnians?I mean really, people are going for Hajj, but 27 people pitch up to say goodbye to 2 people. Fair enough, but there's a designated Hajj Meet and Greet area at JHB International/O.R. Tambo International. Logic dictates that you go to those places and do your whole business there. But no, Blaaaaaahnians need to stand in the queues at the check in counters with the people travelling. Consequently, this creates a glut of people which then inconveniences everyone else because there's no place to move.

Bearing in mind that the general Hajj greeting process goes something like this: people going for Hajj go and visit all relevant people informing them of their intention to go, then the people who were greeted go to the people going to go and greet them before they go. And then they still rock up at the airport for one last shot at a goodbye. Before the cultural crusaders, imbecilic bandwagoners, and right-clicking thieves and company decide to educate me, I do know the meaning of the tradition and why people feel it is important. My gripe here is why they can't follow the rules and go to the designated area and not clog up an entire airport terminal making small talk from 6pm for a flight that leaves at 10pm. Blaaaaahnians.

Here's the weird part. So I'm at the airport, and I was at the check in area, not to be a Blaaaaahnian pleb, but because I had gone to find parking and was locating the car key owner who was in the queue. I decided to wait a bit away from the crowds because of the above ^. I don't like to inconvenience people, yes I'm nice like that. I stood about for a bit looking at the scene in front of me and thinking about how blog-worthy the whole situation was.This is when I notice a couple looking my way, then looking away. Forgot about it, and eventually I decided that I might as well go upstairs and watch some planes.

With the throngs at the airport as thick as being on the Plains of Arafat, I had to weave my way through a bit to get out. My Jheri Curl path takes me past "The Couple" and as I walk past them I hear a solitary "queen_Lestat?!". They didn't shout out loud or anything, but it was audible, (if I had no idea what it was about, I'd have walked right on)so I stopped and turned around kinda worried that I was starting to hear things. So "The Couple" nudges each other and then very politely asked me if I was queen_Lestat. I think they need to add a cement slab to the part of the floor where my jaw dropped. My dialogue was something like "errr, ehm, err yes, why?" and their response was a something gushy along the lines of "omg lol you're our hero!!!". Now queen_Lestat is an under the radar type character so this came as a bit of a shock. They recognised me from my blog. No, you didn't miss any pictures, but I'm sure you'd maybe consider stealing that too for some other nefarious ends.

Male-reader-half-of-"The Couple" said:"From your blog I figured tall female, dressed in black, wearing Doc Martens in this day and age".

queen_Lestat said: "Err you took a pretty calculated guess"

Female-reader-half-of-"The Couple" said: "We've been reading your blog for ages now, I thought it was maybe possible, plus you were looking at the place like you were amused, you know like posting a Chronicle"

queen_Lestat (still all wtf?):"Guilty as charged, lol, but I could've been anyone?"

Female-reader-half-of-"The Couple":"That's why we tried saying queen_Lestat because only someone who it clicks with will get it"

queen_Lestat: "aaaah clever people!"

*lols all around*

Male-reader-half-of-"The Couple": "I've never met a famous person before, we email all your stuff to our friends"

*queen_Lestat dies a million deaths*

Female-reader-half-of-"The Couple": "lol, so like can you please blog about this"

queen_Lestat (utterly mortified): "lol okay, it's too weird not too"

*exuant stage left*

Strues people, the weirdness of the life that is mine.Okay so they're loyal readers, but it doesn't make it any less weird.It's amazing how tiny little details can mean so much, things which you'd never really notice or think of as being too important.

I have no idea who these people are really, but hey here's your special Chronicle delivery on demand for you guys. Glad you enjoy them :)

I wonder if they, like Hunter S Thompson thought "there (s)he goes. One of God's own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die."

Love and staaarph to my two new found email people
rah*

Inflation

1x pair of Doc Martens somewhere around 1996 or before...R300-350ish

December 2006...they die whilst not in my direct possession.

1 x (last) pair of Doc Martens(tagged with the sign of the beast) June 2007 from some obscure charo shop... R200

(I kid you not, that was the price. Thanks to some weird high paying, very easy,very last minute editing job, (which I didn't think counted as "work", therefore considered it freebie money)I only had to throw in R200 which is R100 less than 10 years ago.)(Okay, my logic might be a bit weird there but it makes sense to me)

...Being rawking enough to still wear them...

....priceless.

\m/

For everyone else there's pointy Nine West Stiletto boots
(but not for,)
rah*


PS breaking them in again is a bitch...

'Twas the season to be bo-ored

Hello friendly friends!!! Who used to say that? Aaaah ye that turtle fellow...

The parents are back from Hajj.And I've been making my own little pilgrimage with little offerings of tea, zam zam, etc up and down and around and lets clean up now and then lets start over again.Usual drift at my place, only on steroids now. Apparently quite a marvelous experience, and best done when you're young. In the process cashed in on an ipod. YAY!!! now I just gotta figure out how the damn thing works. And while I cashed in on a cult item of the 'naughties i lost out on a cult item of the last century. The last pair of Doc Martens died. dead. gone. finished. impossible. dunno how it happened, but it's over, ripped asunder. Now not only have I seen Live in concert, but now ze Docs have died. Grunge is over. The music will live on forever though.*siiiiiiiiigh* enough tragedy...

O I learned to cook, not that I couldn't before, but now I can cook like what my aunt calls "a proper human being".Talk about charo fundamentalism. Anyone up for khuri kichari? dhaal and rice?All the optional extras that go with it?

I flew a plane. I kid you not. A Cessna 172. Went flight training at Rand Airport, which's in and around Germiston side of GP. Once we reached around 7000 feet I was allowed to steer and navigate all the way to Brixton Towers and then round Ponte Towers in Hillbrow. It was my luck that the runway was busy so we had to stay in the air for a longer period before Air Traffic Control brought us back so pilot Howdy and I took a trip around Johannesburg and then got back. It's a really beautiful city from up there. Quite an experience. Fabulous. I can see why they say that there's a height requirement for pilots.I'm not as short as I should be perhaps.A slight bit of a genetic freak I am, but it's quite tough to see over the top bar of the cockpit control panel thingy. And if you can't see over that, you can't see buildings in front of you...do the math....

Also in this holiday, I have been weaned off the internet and most GPRS operated things, purely due to a lack of availability. However, being in the company of so many females(I am unaccustomed to the phenomenon, I have male siblings only) I've learned to slightly tolerate female whims such as browsing shops with no particular purpose or fitting on stuff you're never gonna buy...ever. However, I can go 20 minutes in a shop now, much better than the 5-10 I could spend and then say "hey guys, I'll be in the book store when you're done ok?"

Now as you can probably tell by the fact that Doc Martens have been blogged about, I do have a bit of a shoe fetish(not in THAT way), but ya i do. And for 2007 I want to buy myself a high heeled shoe. Not a boot or a sandal, but a shoe. A black one, preferably something funky, yet classic. 2007 is the year I say screw the short people, I would like to have something besides flats on my feet, if only for a little bit. Yeah, those dreams get dashed the minute you fit one on, then you realise why you wear flats. Well that and the fact that with a small heel on you're nearly 1.8m tall, and that's not so grand, when all your friends are hobbit sized. You parade around (in flats) like the Giant of Blaaaaahnia.Well not as bad as a female Matthew McGrory, but still relatively bad compared to the rest of my friends. Just once I'd like to wear something like this.

However I think I might just end up re-investing in the 90's.It's sooo much more comfortable to make tea and carry trays around in flats :)

I get a cramp in my cheek and my knees grow week...
night night
rah*

PS... got a busy year ahead of me, but I will try to continue eating up bandwidth with my arb stuff at least more than every so often. All these freaking bugs are kamikazing into my screen.Like a plague. The only light around I guess.

PPS... I might be rich, thinking of becoming a celebrity sue-er person/thing. the k-man will have details! :P