Blue

Okay, so much has happened since the last post. We went to Zanzibar and had the most wonderful and highly intoxicating cocktail party ever!

But right now I feel really, really blue because:

1) The weather is crappy. The rainy season has begun in earnest and it's so dark and dreary that if you were contemplating suicide, you might actually be tempted to follow through
2) Even worse is the fact that we had the most Fabulous House Guest ever and he just left yesterday. Today my dear, dear, sweet Girlfriend and also Pinky have left for South Africa and Girlfriend will be away for a long time. I am feeling so sorry for myself right now!

The Engineer and I, who are recovering from a week of hard partying with the Fabulous House Guest are deeply entrenched in the 'woe is me' type of mood.
I'm going to try my never-fail technique of cheering up - tons of chocolate and girly movies.

Girls With Attitude

Pinky, Girlfriend and I organised a ladies get-together yesterday morning. Actually, Pinky and Girlfriend organised it and I helped here and there but being the sweeties that they are, they generously share the credit.

It was such a success! Nearly 50 ladies came to our little gathering. I don't know if this means that the three of us are well connected in Dar or the fact that the entrance was free had something to do with it ; ) I think it's the free entrance!

You might wonder what's the purpose of this event and that's the beauty of it - nothing in particular! I think Pinky and Girlfriend thought of doing it because they wanted to get to know more people and create a way for the ladies in Dar to mingle. We call it the Girls With Attitude get-together. This is our unofficial logo:



Isn't she cute?

Pinky found a local lady to come and do manicures/pedicures for TSH10,000. This might sound like an exorbitant amount but it's like RM 28 for a mani and pedi. Isn't that an incredible bargain?

There were also people selling educational toys (not my thing) and Girlfriend who was there with her jewellery (really my thing). Here she is standing pretty and proud behind her counter:


I attempted the shopgirl thing myself and tried selling some little purses from Malaysia. Suprisingly, nobody ran away shrieking and some people actually bought my stuff!! I never knew I'd have So-Much-Fun SELLING bags instead of buying 'em!!! I am now officially The Bag Lady. This is what my table looked like when the event started....


...and this is what it looked like near the end....




I was SO excited that I'd managed to sell something until Ms Paranoia took over. I'm now terrified people are going to ring me and shout at me that my bags are no good and they've changed their minds...I'll have to wait and see if that happens!

The whole thing only lasted a few hours and Pinky, being the organiser extraordinaire, even manged to get a 3G pack as a raffle prize. Girfriend donated a discount voucher for her jewellery as one of the prizes. The person who won was SO excited, you'd think she won the lottery but that's because Girlfriend's stuff is really gorgeous.

We celebrated at the end with one too many glasses of wine (which I'm now feeling the effects of) . I just can't wait to organise the next one - not because of the wine (although I can't complain!) but because it gives us all such a wonderful feeling of accomplishment!

Hey, I just thought of a rhyme:

Girls with attitude get things done
Girls with attitude just wanna have fun.

Alright, I'd better not attempt poetry. That was a silly, silly rhyme! I think I'll spare the world and just stick to writing!

Folders are Fabulous!

I am in the midst of booking a safari holiday for The Engineer's and my friends who are Malaysians but reside in London. They'll be coming to Dar at the end of March so I'm a bit short of time. This is usually my worst nightmare. Holidays are very personal and everyone has specific ideas on how to spend them since they're usually highly expensive and come round like once or twice a year.

I envisioned calling London a hundred times and calling the travel agent even more times but the friends have been totally fabulous. In order to give me as little trouble as possible, they have sent all their requests in an Excel spreadsheet - with their ideas highlighted in blue! Now, that's what I call organisational skills!

Some people I have dealt with in the past (this includes colleagues and bosses who are PAID to be organised but fail miserably) usually keep calling you, keep changing their minds and then finally blame you when everything falls apart and nobody gets anything done.
If this is how they plan holidays in the UK, I wonder how fabulously organised they must be at work?! If you're wondering why I'd this impressed with planning and orderliness, there is a story behind it....

In the old days, I used to spend half my life scratching about for birth certificates, academic certificates, school exercise books etc. While I feverishly hunted for the mysteriously absent item, I would undoubtedly receive a ticking off from my mum who is the Queen of Organisation and did not tolerate chaotic behaviour from her scatter-brained daughter.
I finally realized that it was much easier to get my arse into gear and get organised than to go through the stress of looking for stu all the time. So I'm now organised to the point of being a freak.

These days, I own folders for almost everything and make lists for absolutely everything. Grocery lists, to do lists, birthday and christmas lists. There are also corresponding folders for each list for receipts etc. I have a folder for my cat too with all his vet bills etc (I know you guys think I'm nuts but the vet was impressed when he saw my folder!)

My sister in law, CL, is one of the coolest people I know and in line with her cool persona, would rather be referred to as 'chaotic' than 'organised'. She laughed at all my lists but the laughter came to a halt when she found herself depending on my Plan B list for Christmas gifts( Plan B is the backup gift list for Christmas in case I can't get the presents on Plan A). Like most cool, chaotic people, she'd left Christmas shopping till two days before the 25th and couldn't think straight about what gift to give whom. So organised, geeky me came to the rescue. Alright, I'm a freak but at least I'm an organised freak!

I'm telling you, organisational skills are totally underrated!

A Girl's Best Friend

This is my first French Manicure in Africa. Whaddya think?


I finally visited Top Knots salon in Seacliff after almost one year here in Tanzania. Here's their nail polish colour collection:



It felt wonderful going to a salon after such a long time. I know everyone says how you look doesn't really count it's what's inside that matters but let's face it people - that's only half true.

How can anyone feel good about themselves if they've got stringy hair, are overweight or have skin that makes the craters of the moon look smooth? I'm not being mean. I'm just pointing out a fact of life. Even Oprah, whom I think is always talking about the importance of who you are and not what you look like, didn't feel good about herself until she got a grip and lost some weight.

So since this is my blog and what I say goes, I'm going to put this piece of wisdom out there - how you look is probably going to reflect how you feel.

In other words, manicures, facials, blow dries and all the hundreds of other beauty treatments women subject themselves to are NOT luxuries but necessities. When a man feels bad about something he goes out and buys a ridiculously expensive gadget/vehicle. When woman feels bad about something she goes out and buys ridiculously expensive shoes and has ridiculously expensive beauty treatments.

After being suitably horrified by the movie Blood Diamonds I'm going to advocate expensive beauty treatments and not diamonds as a girl's best friend. At least nobody has to die just so we girls can get a fabulous manicure (at least I hope not!)