Happy Friday, guys! I’ve spent the week running around. I’m working on some big film projects for the tourism board and at the same time i’m working on shooting a profile of my family’s business Doubell Machines. I’ve been rolling my sleeves up, putting on my army boots and walking around the factory scaring all the men with my very intimidating tripod and Canon 5D MK II! (luckily i don’t have sound in the videos else i might just deafen you with the high-pitch of the welding) I love a good productive week. This was also the week I got my awesome Lenovo laptop which I’m so excited about! It has a core i.5 processor, 6 GB RAM, 500 GB hardrive, 15″ screen and – best of all – it has Windows 8. If you have Windows 8, here are my top 6 suggestions for great apps to download from your store (nice ideas for your android or iphone, too)
Flipboard. This is a really great social magazine featuring the latest stories from any field that interests you. It collects the content of social media and other websites and presents it in magazine format and allows users to “flip” through their social-networking feeds. I love it because it gives me instant access at one click to the current news in everything – from the music industry to the film industry to world news to news from my favourite companies and brands (I follow national geographic). I definitely recommend this one.
Aviary. This is a really great photo editor which allows you to add effects and text to your images as well as a whole bunch of other editing tools.
Instagram Explorer. This is basically Instagram on a computer screen. It has an easy layout which allows you to access instagram on your computer and not just via your phone. But note that you can’t actually upload via this – it’s exclusively for viewing.
Ballstrike. This is a fun exercise app that gets you moving (think wii fit) If you have a webcam you can use this easily; it generates targets on your screen for you to hit, so you watch yourself punch and kick the air around you for hours on end. And it also tells you how many calories you’re burning, which is great!
Netflix. An online video-streaming app, Netflix allows you to watch any movie, show or TV series in the world by paying a simple flat-rate fee once a month.
TuneIn Radio. Tune In Radio allows you to listen to terrestrial and internet streaming radio stations from around the globe. This is great for me in Cape Town, where we have a subculture of these online radio stations popping up everywhere! It’s a pity that it doesn’t have 2oceansvibe radio though.
How about you, what apps are must-haves for you? Anything I’ve left out I should know about?
We all love social media. It’s good for building business, building relationships and for sheer enjoyment. These are the social media platforms I use, literally in order of preference.
1. Facebook. I have a personal Facebook page and a public page for myself as an actress. You can view it HERE. I really had to think about how to use my public page because whenever I did jobs or attended cool industry events I would post about it on my personal page anyway. I tried to only post about my professional life on my public page, but let’s face it, you have more reach with your personal page. I had way more friends than official ‘likes’ on my public page, and I was finding that I wanted to post about my successes on my personal platform anyway. So I’ve always run the risk of not utilizing my public page properly and of being repetitive if i did. Yet I still felt I needed it. Then, to make matters worse, FB introduced the concept of public subscribers to your personal page. This, I soon learned, is the same as ‘fans‘ or ‘followers‘ on your public page. They could follow you personally if they wanted to and you could just change the setting of what you posted to either make it public (for your ‘subscribers‘) or keep it to just be for your actual friends. So you were totally in control of your privacy. And it made it so much easier for you to just update one page. So what was now the point of having a public page at all? It seems I’m not the only one with this dilemma; I’ve read many interesting articles on this and it actually was a problem for a lot of actors, comedians, sport stars and public figures when FB introduced this. Mainly because it split their followers. Some followers would ‘like’ and stick to following their public page, and other followers who were smarter would just subscribe to the public feeds on their personal pages. So now they, like myself, had to repeat everything they said to both their public and personal pages so as to update everyone. That can be annoying for people getting your feed twice if they have you as a friend and have officially liked your page too. I realized that friends and family are the ones you want to tell good news to anyway. So your first instinct is to upload those awesome pictures, announce the good news about a role you got, or shout out about that eventyour attending on your personal page. But then what about the people who have just liked your public page and don’t subscribe to you personally? They don’t get to see or know about those things. So either way, you alienate somebody. This is not ideal. These famous sport stars, comedians and public figures eventually came up with a way to resolve this by simply joining both platforms into one single, neat page. They do this by absorbing their personal profile page into their public page, thereby creating only one platform. This platform can then act as both their personal and professional realms. And, it has no limits to the number of people that can ‘subscribe’ or ‘follow’ (which is the case with subscribers to a personal page only). This way, they only update once and they can simply change the publicity setting depending on who they want to see it – this applies to check ins, photo albums, status updates and so on. Sound good? Yes, but the only problem is that with this amalgamation, you will lose all your photos and history which you currently have on your personal page. Not nice. If you’re still interested, Facebook gives you instructions on how to do this conversion HERE.
2. Twitter. This used to be top of my list, but I’m bored. I’m not gonna lie. Many people will tell you i’m crazy, but unless you have something definite you are tweeting about (I enjoy updating my business one, for instance), it runs the risk of being an online platform for self-loving dilettantes who are captivated by the sound of their own voice. How cringeworthy. I find this with a lot of my actor friends and, unfortunately, I can’t shake the wince when I read some of their tweets. I like tweeting about the news, current affairs, books, charities, good quotes, bible verses, sports updates, travel stories, or actual jobs I’m doing. Read my post on how to use Twitter HERE.
3. Instagram. Gorgeous and fun! For the pictures that don’t make the cut onto Facebook or Twitter. Arty, silly or simply fun pics! I’m enjoying it more and more, see my article on itHERE.
4. Pinterest. Imagine we are all artists or graphic designers and we have massive, creative pinboards all around our bedrooms and studios! Imagine that everytime we see a picture or a quote in a magazine we tear it out and pin it up on one of our boards. We collect all kinds of pictures spanning across all different sorts of topics and are inspired by them everytime we look at them. This is Pinterest. It’s a community of creative minds who love to look at pretty things and share them with the world. This is an awesome online vehicle to advertise, to inspire, to share and to enjoy. I love pictures and you can find some really beautiful ones on just about anything on Pinterest. Go on – try – type in a wordHERE.People have some really great ‘boards’ on it (which is where a collection of photos is grouped on your profile) and these boards span across so many different themes. A person can have more than one board. I have a board called “Delish” where I post pictures of delicious foods I see. I also have “Favourite Places & Spaces” where I post pictures of beautiful scenes. I have a nice picture of a place called Sleepy Hollow Farm in Vermont on there. See it HERE. I personally follow the board ‘Chocolate’ by a user named Heidi. See itHERE.There are some tasty pics up on it which she has repinned from other sites she’s spotted them on. I used to really likewww.weheartit.com but I’m starting to like Pinterest more. Mostly because of the sizes of the pictures. I look up pics for my blog articles here. It’s fantastic! I also advertise my blog articles on it, for the millions of users who log on and sift through pictures every day. I even added a Pinterest share button here on my blog under every article, so if you see any pictures you like in any of my articles, you can click on the Pinterest button and share it, or as they say, PIN IT!
What about you? What are your social platforms? Do you have Pinterest?
One thing I really love to do is write. I’m an expressive person by nature with lots of thoughts and ideas that spill into my head at any given time. I realized recently that I have no vehicle through which to do justice to all that. So I took myself to exclusive books and got myself a gorgeous little moleskin book and some nice pens!
With the new year having started I’ve decided to journal more. Going to Spain, Portugal and New York this year should see me filling up quite a few pages!
I believe in balancing your life – physical, social, mental and spiritual. Journalism is a great way to achieve that balance.
After journaling for about a week, I’ve realized a few things:
I have a better idea of what 2012 was like.
I have a better idea of what I want 2013 to look like.
I take for granted how lucky and blessed I am.
I much prefer old-fashioned pen and paper to the screen and keyboard!
Do you journal? What do you use it for – to spill your thoughts? To share your fears? Recap your day?
This past week I attended a very fun event here in Cape Town, South Africa. It was held at the Shimmy Beach Club at the harbour. I loved the vibe of the evening. There were loads of people all gathered together to see who would win the coveted title of the Cosmopolitan Hottest Bartender of the Year (with prize money of R20 000)!Cosmopolitan magazine, in partnership with Collison’s White Gold Brandy, announced on 14 January this year the five guys and five girls who got the nod to compete for the title of “SA’s Hottest Bartender”. The 10 finalists for 2013 were featured in the February issue of Cosmo. Readers had the opportunity to scrutinize these movers and shakers of creative cocktails, and to vote for their favourite. The aim of the Cosmopolitan Hottest Bartendersearch every year is to find a bartender with the perfect combination of creativity and charisma, who has his or her craft honed to perfection.
The competition is not judged only on looks: each entrant has to submit an original cocktail recipe.
They will then be required to prepare their cocktails on the night of the big finale in Cape Town on 14 March, and the overall winner will walk away with the grand prize of R20 000.
The 10 finalists were:
Dillon Nuss from Taco Zulu, Durban
Le Riche Meyer from Carnival Court, Cape Town
Nicole Adams form Boulevard, Durban
Gabriella Trollip from Tiger Tiger, Cape Town
Domenico De Lorenzo from Molecular Bars, Johannesburg
Johnny Bezuidenhout from Café Caprice, Cape Town -WINNER
Robyn Horwitz from Movida, Johannesburg
Imaan Mac Quena from Jade Champagne Bar & Lounge, Cape Town
Nancy Ellis from Hooters, Durban
Donovan Prince from Café Caprice, Cape Town
I personally loved the girls. They had a lot of spunk and could definitely hold their own next to the boys. But I have to say, the boys had that cockiness that’s a huge crowd pleaser in something like this. Let’s put it this way……while the girls were smiling, doing a few dance moves from behind the counter and tamely stirring in the vodka, the boys were literally ripping their shirts off, jumping on the counter and flexing their tattoo-covered muscles while shaking that martini!
And let me just say .. HUBBA HUBBA! I mean, C’mon, They had us at HELLO
The winner was Johnny Bezuidenhout from Cape Town’s most popular beach bar Café Capriceand he was really deserving. MCPoppy Ntshongwana didn’t have a hard time handing over the cheque!
We shot Caprice‘s Skybok Profile a few months ago and for the video, we got Johnny to prepare a Mojito for us on-camera – check out his talent for yourself by watching itHERE.
A great performance was given by iScream & The Chocolate Stix after the show and I really enjoyed their performance. It’s nice to hear local bands singing good music. Check out their blogHERE.
Thank you to everyone involved for bringing us an awesome event!
Christmas / New Year’s is that delicious little period in life when all the worries of the world seem to fade away into some fantastically naughty little indulgence.
It can actually be any indulgence in the world – allow me to show you some of my little indulgences over the past 2 weeks
I flew up to Johannesburg with my family & stayed at the Tsogo Sun hotel, the Southern Sun Hotel, Montecasino.
It was absolutely heavenly!!
It’s a brand-new addition to the hotel family at Montecasino from my understanding… opened in May 2010.
I’ve always stayed at their legendary Palazzo hotel when I’ve travelled to Montecasino.
I still absolutely love it! But compared to this new addition, it’s a tad old-fashioned.
Apparently it’s due for refurbishment this year, which will hopefully give it the freshness & contemporary ambiance of its sister hotel the Southern Sun!
Opened in May 2010 the Southern Sun Montecasino located at The Pivot is an exciting addition to the Montecasino Precinct. The hotel has 194 bedrooms and offers all the modern facilities for both business and leisure travellers including a high spec gymnasium.
The hotel reflects a fusion of period and modern Venetian furnishings with a fresh electric style. Punchinello’s restaurant offers Mediterranean cuisine in an exciting open plan kitchen which allows guests to share in the activities of the bustling kitchen.
A contemporary bar and lounge leads out to a large wooden deck overlooking the pool which is the ideal setting for sundowners.
We had a gorgeous view from our room overlooking the Sun Square as well as a superbly-designed lake, fully equipped with a family of ducks and my favourite – two black swans
Walking out of our hotel, there was easy access to the main Montecasino entertainment complex.
We spotted these fabulous Venetian-inspired statues along the way!
I loved them – there was a statue for every season. My favourite was Summer…
There was also just generally some beautiful Venetian-inspired scenery which was so inspiring.
There is an exciting hub just a 5 min walk from our hotel called Sun Square which is just brilliant!
Complete with restaurants – including the winner of Masterchef South Africa’s very own restaurant called Aarya - a musical fountain, a big screen TV, a clock tower and a giant Teatro (Italian for “Theatre”) hosting top notch productions all year round!
Everything in the complex is styled to look like Venice, which I loved.
This is where we celebrated New Year’s Eve…. my best New Year’s of them all!!
The fireworks at the stroke of midnight were marvelous!!!
I absolutely loved them.
I think fireworks at midnight on New Year’s is an absolute MUST.
Fireworks & champagne, that’s a true celebration for a new year <3
All these pics are by my brother, Dane Doubell.
Prior to the countdown on New Year’s Eve we enjoyed the award-winning, much-acclaimed musical production Dirty Dancing.
It blew me away!!!
I was really excited to wear my new dress from Forever New, white always looks great against a bit of a tan
me & my bro
On New Year’s Eve we started a special new tradition which I hope will last for a very long time…
We lit 2 beeswax candles which were part of a delicate little ornament I received as a gift from a friend who went to the German Christmas Market last year!
I lit the candle on the left for the old year and blew out all of the past.
Then I lit the candle on the right for the future, and breathed in the light of the new year!
I recently created a quote for myself which is where the premise of this tradition began
Breathe out the past and breathe in the future
I also saw one great quote at Skoobs - my new favourite book store – which held lovely significance for me!
how true!
To top it all off, I threw a lucky penny into this fountain on New Year’s Eve and made a wish ……….. (i’m not telling!)
Okay okay it might have something to do with the necklace i was wearing………….. hehehe
What I totally enjoyed about the Montecasino was walking around the complex popping into this shop and that, grabbing an iced coffee and watching the live entertainment the Monte organizes.
There’s always some entertainment in the centre, from saxophone players to magicians to singers to circus folk.
It’s really the place to be!
I found a book store which I absolutely fell in love with called Skoobs and I really think we need one in Cape Town!!
I also watched two 3D films at the cinema which I adored!!
-Go see them!!
Something we loved to do was take a golf cart during the days from our hotel to the Palazzo and swim in their beautiful pool!
We alternated between swimming at our hotel and the Palazzo hotel, which were both so gorgeous…
with my mom
me!
A few more indulgences were definitely at the breakfast buffet!!
There were so many people at this hotel and in the complex generally.. I knew we’d picked the perfect place to spend New Year as a family
Flying there business class also helped!
G & T is my favourite drink ever
Recently a new favourite that has been added to the list is a rum & orange juice…. you must try it!
my awesome lunch… Thank you South African Airways!
On the last day we visited the Montecasino Bird Gardens ……… and WOOWWWW!
I loved it.
My impressions of the park were that it is very clean and spacious.
Also that they have such a diverse collection of birds.
The birds are well looked after and I was thoroughly delighting in all the various exotic birds they have there…
They hold wonderful bird shows every day at different times of the day.
I really enjoyed it much more than I first thought I would – I felt like a kid again!
There was one creature I particularly liked, and that was the chameleon!
I also liked the snake, seeing as 2013 is the year of the snake!
It also turns out I’m more afraid of birds than I realized… when handling some exotic bird at one point, one of his friends flew onto my head and I got the biggest fright ever!
I screamed so loud I probably scared most the patrons, and lucky for you I have a very embarrassing video !
It was a nightmare, but my brother seemed to enjoy it, haha!
I calmed my nerves at a nearby waterfall – gorgeous!
Finally, that night, we went and got a super Thai Massage!
Those massages are absolutely something else – very rough but heavenly at the same time!
We did a foot massage and then went into a full body “deep tissue” thai massage.
Absolutely incredible!
They actually manipulate your entire body as part of the massage.
It’s quite something – had me stretching in positions I never knew I could!
The parlour where the Thai spa was lay inside the Montecasino complex, making it very convenient for us!
I just remember walking in and smelling the sweet scent of vanilla incense…. it was stunning <3
I loved everything about this place and it certainly made me add “get a thai massage at least once a month” to my resolutions list!
Here is some more info on Thai massages (I found it quite interesting!)
Traditional Thai massage is based on the belief that all life force spirals around special pathways, or prana pathways, in the body. There are 72 000 invisible energy lines, which make up the energy body. Any blockage along these lines can cause disease (dis-ease) on a physical, emotional and spiritual level. Thai massage focuses on 10 important lines, called sen sip. By releasing any blocked energy along the sen lines, prana can flow freely, thereby restoring balance, health and harmony in the body.
Traditional Thai massage is a combination of acupressure, reflexology and yogic exercises, or gentle stretching, which manipulates the energy lines and so diminishes tension, stimulates metabolism and creates a feeling of wellbeing and vitality. Unlike some other therapies, you will feel refreshed and energized after a Thai massage, rather than sedated and lethargic.
After a glorious holiday in Johannesburg, we flew back to my home town Port Elizabeth where I am currently writing to you from!
Stay tuned for more updates as I go out into 2013 living outside my comfort zone!
As I attempt to keep my resolutions, start some interesting new hobbies, get daring & get snapping away to bring you some awesome photo moments!
I am literally haunted by these images because they are so beautiful.
Space… The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. It’s continuing mission… to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
There was a new moon on the 14th of November this year, and on the 28th a lunar eclipse.
A lunar eclipse is one in which the moon appears darkened as it passes into the earth’s shadow.
An eclipse of the Moon (or lunar eclipse) can only occur at Full Moon, and only if the Moon passes through some portion of Earth’s shadow
One of the top stories at the moment is that NASA and other space agencies around the world are already thinking about ways to set foot on Mars, or The Red Planet, and are thinking of ways to minimize the contamination risks that may come with that.
Apparently us humans have a mass of 100 trillion microbes which accompany each one of us, including the astronauts that will land on Mars.
This diverse “microbiome” has evolved with humans for eons and provides a number of services, from helping people digest their food to keeping pathogenic bacteria at bay.
While these microbes are intimately tied to humans, many of them will jump ship if transported to the Martian surface — with unknown consequences for a planet that may or may not host life of its own.
- SPACE.com
So the goal then becomes how such astronauts will land on Mars, microbes and all, and not kill whatever life forms exist (who are not immune to the microbes which we are spewing off every second) in the process.
A solution to this is figuring out where is wisest to land in order for the atmosphere of Mars to kill off such Microbes that are released.
So the humans are only able to go to places where we expect that the Mars environment will be quite lethal to any Earth organisms that get released
Various locations near the Martian equator might qualify.
And get this, along with planning where to land in order to avoid killing possible life forms, space agencies are thinking one step ahead… that is, assuming they do land and set up house, how they will eat.
Future astronauts may grow some of their meals inside greenhouses, such as this Martian growth chamber, where fruits and vegetables could be grown hydroponically, without soil. CREDIT: Pat Rawlings/NASA
There are many guidelines that space agencies have been given to follow when planning and preparing their missions to Mars — a rough protocol drawn up in 2008 by the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), which is part of the International Council for Science.
One of the fundamental one is that “humans cannot explore a Martian locale that has not been visited and vetted by a robot first. This robotic scout could arrive on a precursor mission, or it may be a component of the human mission itself.”
NASA is thinking very seriously about how to send humans to Mars safely and responsibly, having been charged by President Barack Obama in 2010 to get astronauts to the vicinity of the Red Planet by the mid-2030s.
- SPACE.com
The whole mission has been dubbed “Mars One” and if you want to follow it, visit the official website for the mission, http://mars-one.com/en/
There’s even debate right now about whether the astronauts need to come back?
Why can’t they just prepare for a one-way mission and eliminate 60% of the costs?
Once there, the astronauts can get to work on colonizing Mars.
Here are more articles written about this (very exciting!):
If there’s one group who can sure throw a party………. it’s the Cosmo Clan!
They truly outdid themselves this year at their Swimwear Pool Party which was held at Shandiz Restaurant & Cocktail Bar, Mandela Rhodes Place, corner of Wale and Burg Street, Cape Town.
I dressed up in my sexiest best and joined them for what was an evening nothing short of Cosmolicious!
I mean, honestly!
What a way to kick start Summer.
Everything was big, bold & colourful.
I thoroughly enjoyed some of the eye candy that was walking around serving the food and giving away free stuff!
It started at 5pm and wrapped up at 10pm.
with SABC Expresso Show’s Graeme Richards
with Playmate of the year Jade Fairbrother & SABC Expresso Show’s Leigh-Anne Williams
opening our fortune cookies
Sure, I’ll have a towel! Thanks.
I barely remember much as there was so much going on all around me; I have flashes of swirling ice cream, a swimwear show, Revlon painting my nails, Dentyne giving me gum, Billabong’s pool of balls (sounds bad) to win my hat, trying on Bronx shoes, Goldfish playing and firedancers putting on a good show!
The whole thing was so utterly 4D if you pressed your nose to this blog post you could probably smell the chocolate mousse from these guys -
COSMOPOLITAN turned up the heat this weekend to celebrate the long-awaited arrival of summer. Held at Shandiz Mandela Rhodes Place, the crystal clear pool with its cityscape backdrop was the perfect way to enjoy the first of many pool parties this festive season. Guests were treated to cocktails, delicious snacks, loads of ice cream and some very hot bodies. The stunning Anthea Schotlz opened the event with a sexy sunset session followed by an amazing performance by Goldfish.
The other day we found ourselves shooting Caprice’s Skybok Profile and we had just come from shooting The Bay Hotel…. I was completely exhausted and tense and I needed my fix!
It was a gorgeous day and the place was packed – perfect for our video and perfect for my mood!
I like the barmen there, they are always very confident and they certainly know how to keep your spirits up – oh, and make the best cocktails
I give their Mojitos the best score in the land – if you haven’t tried them, you absolutely have to.
And if Mojitos aren’t your thing, definitely go for their bottomless champagne special on Fridays - bottomless Boschendal bubbly for just R35!
As for the massages…… well… I have one suggestion for that… The Twelve Apostles! Duh!
I booked myself in for a back, neck & shoulders massage the other day and it was absolutely incredible.
I felt like this kitten:
My masseuse’s name was “Rose” …. if you go, ask for her!!
She’s good.
I’d actually never been to the Twelve Apostles before…. and I must say it was smaller than I’d imagined!
Still gorgeous, but smaller.
You basically walk into a waiting area where there’s a buffet of fruits and juices, which is very nice (note below right), and some big white couches to sit on.
If you wish to occupy yourself with something other than food or magazines, you can walk down to a relaxation chamber of sorts, where you’ll find some beautiful pools for you to dip into.
One of my favourites was the ‘dead sea’ pool…. it has the salt content of the dead sea, so when you lie in it you float.
The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth 417 meters below sea level. Many people come each year to bath in the Dead Sea Minerals water which consist of a very high concentration of dead sea salt and dead sea minerals. The Dead Sea is the saltiest and most mineral-laden in the world. The Dead Sea enables you to float- that is why you can never drown. The Dead Sea has an amazing Mineral Black Mud, which is best for your skin.
This pool area is also where they do the pedicures, next to which is the steam room and rasul …. as well as another waiting room.
me having strawberry tea in the waiting room!
I loved the bathrooms, very clean and spacious.
Here’s me having a photo moment in my robe! hehe
I simply loved my treatment, I wish I could go back every week and experience the other treatments they offer and blog about them!
From what I saw, the 60 minute hot stone full body massage looked heavenly….
I did have a few minutes of the hot stones within my 30 min back, neck & shoulders and it was totally what I needed!
I’m pretty sure a whole hour of that would race by because it’s so good.
The primary benefits of hot stone massage are increased circulation, reduced stress and a reduction in body aches. Many seek hot stone therapy to help with such problems as depression and insomnia, while others use the massage to treat specific areas of pain, such as the lower back, and certain conditions like arthritis, fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis. Another benefit is the “feel good” factor that occurs due to the pampering procedure.
This past week, three of the stars from the NBC hit soapie flew to South Africa for a two-city tour!
Galen Gering (Rafe), Drake Hogestyn (John) and Arianne Zucker (Nicole) enjoyed the gorgeous welcome that was waiting for them here and toured the country promoting the show and really just celebrating a show which has been running on our screens for so long and which has a huge fan base here.
Here are some other faces you may recognize from the hit-soapie:
I was honoured to be invited to an exclusive cocktail evening where SABC 3 hosted the cast members at The Expresso Penthouse here in Cape Town, to celebrate the soapie that has for many years graced the small screen in South Africa.
…. And what a wonderful event it was!
SABC truly outdid themselves; the décor was stunning and the food was even better!
I couldn’t have asked for a better location for the evening, a stunning penthouse on a beautiful summer’s evening overlooking the city with views of the ocean and the dazzling ocean liner lights.
Magical.
There was a fabulous arrangement of champagne glasses upon arrival and guests were given a glass of Pierre Jourdain or a cosmo!
Well what can I say, I kept going back for more
with Drake Hogestyn a.k.a. John Black
with Drake Hogestyn a.k.a. John Black
with Arianne Zucker a.k.a. Nicole Walker
with Galen Gering a.k.a. Rafael “Rafe” Hernandez
with Galen Gering, Jo-ann Strauss and Janez Vermeiren
with Clayton Morar
with Clayton Morar
with Leigh-Anne Williams
with Risuna Mayimele
When speeches came around, MC Janez welcomed them officially and gave them each the mic to say a few words.
I was struck by the humility of all of them, especially of Drake Hogestyn a.k.a. John Black!
He is just so fun-loving, light-hearted and down-to-earth which was wonderful to see.
During his speech he said that the welcome they’ve received here in South Africa has been overwhelming and that they are very grateful.
He mentioned how when they go back to work today (Monday), they will be surrounded by the lights and the studios of NBC and they’ll just look at each other and smile.
To him, they share a secret; the secret of South Africa and their fantastic trip here.
He said that it’s been a magical and unforgettable experience that they’ll never forget.
To me personally, I think it’s crazy how with one plane ride they’ll be transported to another world.
It must be weird for them to come somewhere so far away and receive such a huge welcome, have such a fabulous time and then have to travel back to their reality, remembering all their fans here and the lifestyle that is “South Africa”!
Thank you SABC for a superb evening, I enjoyed every second!
