Review - Non Perishables

Back to the Reviews from DBN Blogger Meet last month.

This post is some of the NON-Perishables that we got in those legendary gift bags! "Non-Perishables" I hear you asking? Things like memory sticks & bags, sunglasses & PJs, stationary and crockery.

This photo was borrowed from their website,
you can see more of the Anna-Louise range
on  their website at www.anna-louise.co.za 
or their facebook at
www.facebook.com/AnnaLouiseSleepwear

I mentioned PJs, and we might as well start there with ANNA-Louise Sleepwear. These are unique, individually made sleeping garments made from pure cotton! They are decently priced, and very well made. I'm not talking about lingerie here; I'm talking about gowns, shorts, night shirts, etc. I received a lovely t-shirt & boxer shorts set. I am a tad sad they are white (I'm terrible with white things, already stained this set with dinner), but, it’s THE MOST COMFORTABLE SLEEPWEAR I have ever had. So, please head over to their website on and order your set.

These would also make an awesome gift for bridal showers and the like.

Find them on Facebook or Twitter

Next up on the list is Elephantshoe Stationary. I used to really love crafts & stationary, but as I have grown and become so busy in life (and discovered computers) I have just not bothered with stationary in years! So when I pulled out this lovely brown paper package tied with string and a sticker of "Elephantshoe Stationary on it, I had no idea what I would open up. But besides the delightful old school packaging, the product inside was fabulous. I received a desktop week planner - see the photo. Elephantshoe do all sorts of stationary, and really specialize in unique stationary for small businesses, things like stamps and letterheads, etc.

Find them on Twitter or Facebook

Many of us have seen the Consol Glass drinking bottles. Well, I am now a proud owner of one. Personally I am not a fan of glass; I am a very clumsy person and tend to drop breakables quite easily. This is amplified by the fact that I live in a house with tiles, so when things fall, they do shatter. But, I saw this attractively designed bottle, with the easy grip and the pretty turquoise trimmings and decided I'd be willing to try a change of heart. Because of my busy lifestyle, (running around the farm, doing door-door ministry, setting up exciting romantic dates for couples) I seriously do not need any extra weight to carry around - neither on my body or in hand luggage ;-). So this bottle now lives in my car, it fits real nicely into the center consol and keeps the water cool and tasting fresh. 

Find them on Facebook and on Twitter

I'm already fairly fond of the Huawei brand. I know we have this preconception that anything from china is bad, but this brand is actually pretty decent. I've had a 3g Modem of theirs for the last 2 years and it works perfectly - well as close to perfect as any man-made item can work. We also have one of their earlier models of the "landline" phone from neotel and that too always works well. So when I saw the list included a Huawei product I was delighted.  In the digital age we live in, no one is unhappy to receive another memory flash drive, those 8gigs can be essential to life! This particular one came in a cute little tin which almost looked like a jewelry case (I thought I was getting a watch for a brief moment), but the memory stick itself is just adorable! In a little Android robot shape, my memory stick will never be confused for someone else's now. Thanks Huawei.

You know by the fact that this blog is called "Farm Girl in the City", and was previously called "TomboyAmelia" that I really am not housewife material. I am very much not domesticated. While I can explain most social networks to you, and I can track a person in the bundus, I can take awesome photos; I can barely fry an egg without flopping the recipe! I have very little success or joy in the kitchen, or any other domestic part of the house for that matter. So to me, a cup is a cup and a pan is a pan. As long as there's a microwave and a dishwasher, I don’t really take note of brands in the house. So, I had quite literally never heard of Le Creuset before.

Le Creuset is a company that makes all sorts of kitchenware and dinnerware. So from Baking pans to wine openers, they make things in stoneware, crockery and silicon. I received a lovely 2 Cup & Saucer stone cappuccino set in fern green. They also sent along a set of recipe cards, so there are some yummy recipes to try. Now that I know what it is, and in fact own something from Le Creuset, I seem to be noticing the brand all over the place!

My favorite thing they make is the mini baking sets for children that I saw in their catalog. But I'll probably never own it, because 1- I'm never having kids, and 2- I might as well buy the adult size and cook a decent size meal....that is, if I ever become domesticated. 

Thanks Le Creuset for the small bit of education in the kitchen. Oh yes, and thanks for the GIANT bag that the entire gift-packs came in at the DBN Bloggers Meet (nearly forgot that was from you)

Now one thing I noticed about the brands that supplied the DBN Blogger Meet gifts was many of them supplied bags of one sort or another. Le Creuset for example do not specialize in bags, and neither does Zomato (more about them in another post), however 3 businesses that supplied us with gifts are pretty specialized in bags. Those were Lenovo, Lou Harvey and YW Couture. What I found pretty cool though is most of the sponsors gave a mixture of things, so all the ladies got individualized gifts.

Find them on Facebook & Twitter

I think most of us received the smart looking Lenovo laptop bags. Yeah, Lenovo is a laptop & tablet company, but they specialize in bags for said laptops. I don’t own a laptop - no one in my family does, and I don’t predict we'll be buying one anytime in the near future (sadly), however this bag has been put to great use! My dad's soft briefcase that he uses for going in the ministry (you know we're Jehovah's Witnesses, which means yes, someday I will very likely be knocking on YOUR door offering you a free bible study) has been looking a little worse for wear recently. The lenovo bag is just the right size to fit a few Watchtowers, a Bible and a couple of small books in it, so my dad now has a new ministry bag, thanks Lenovo (bet you never thought your stuff would be used like that ;-) )

YW COUTURE

LOU HARVEY

From YW Couture I recived a handmade recycled upcycled denim handbag. YW Couture does handmade, unique accessories and clothing. Very cute - see the photo below left.  With an African inspiration for the clothing and accesories, this is perfect for gifts to overseas family and for local chic feel. Find them on Facebook & Twitter

And from Lou Harvey a useful little key-chain coin purse. Lou Harvey specializes in making funky handbags, coin purses, cosmetic bags and even lunch bags in cool and fun coloured fabrics. You can order online on their website at www.louharvey.co.za or check them out on Facebook or Twitter.

There was a rad pair of sunnies from Wakaberry. For those of you who dont know who/what Wakaberry is, they are a healthy alternative to ice-cream bars. They are a frozen yoghurt bar in Durban. Although I predict they will franchise, as yet I dont know that they have. However in a relatively short amount of time they got popular enough in Durban to make their own souvenirs and brand products (other than edibles), which is why I ended up with a cool Wakaberry pair of Sunglasses. Unfortunately for me they dont "work" with my style, but again, Dad was delighted to get them. So thanks Wakaberry, I could re-gift something and make dad very happy.

Second Treasures is a business that specializes in eco-chic furniture and decor. They sponsored a number of gifts for the various bloggers, the one I got was a pretty cool "Home" sign on a recycled plank. Doesn’t really go with the decor here at home, but I have a friend who's moving into a new house pretty soon and I think she'll love it. Quite a few things I re-gifted.

Lastly for today's post, is Washi Bug. The popularity of scrapbooking skyrocketed recently, and many people have been getting more involved in DIY and craft projects in the last few years. With that in mind the western countries (Europe, America, etc) started getting specialized craft supplies. Here in South Africa, it has taken longer, things have arrived in drips and drabs and have been generally over-priced. But now all of that is changing! Washi  Bug specializes in craft tapes, like sticky tape - but its prettier and safe to use on your crafts. I got a nice roll of WashiBug in pink with hearts on it. Now I just have to figure out what project to use it on.

That’s it for today folks.

Horse Riding

What do you think of when you think of horse riding? Perhaps you think of the legendary John Wayne. Or maybe you think of princes rescuing a damsels in distress. It could be that you think of a loving couple happily riding off into the sunset.

Or rather, you may immediately imagine the darker side of things - Christopher Reeve getting a broken neck, or a movie which has a scene of a person being dragged on the ground behind a horse, perhaps you think of being kicked or bitten.

Here's the truth, all of the above is true and has happened!

Horse riding can be an incredible experience. It can be super romantic, it can give you a feeling of complete freedom. It can make you feel powerful, old fashioned, and like a celebrity. You feel like you can soar with the eagles when you are galloping out in the open. Your heart may burst with pride of yourself and your horse when you win a trophy.

But you would be an idiot to think that there are no risks involved. When you climb onto a horse, you have got on average 500kgs or more of muscle underneath you. A living being, with a mind and character of its own. Something that can get a fright, can get angry, can get excited.

Having such a creature underneath you, and listening to your every instruction and whim can be the most incredible feeling ever.

Often times though, I get clients asking me the dreaded questions "How often do people fall off?", "Have you ever fallen?", "How badly do people get injured when they come off?"

First thing you have to realise is that horses in general are not mean spirited animals (unless they have been abused and now defend themselves), when people say "the horse chucked me off" or "the horse threw me", more often than not it actually was not the horses's fault, but their own. Take for example one of my most recent falls a couple of months ago - I was on a horse that is known to get frights, therefore I should have been paying attention. Instead, I was totally chilled out and half turned around chatting to the people riding behind me. So when my horse got a fright and jumped away from a packet blowing in the wind, I should have seen it coming and been prepared for it instead of just landing 'thud' on my my back in front of a group of clients. True horse riders know its not the horse's fault!

Secondly, everyone falls off eventually. Many horse riding schools say to their pupils that "you're not a real horse rider until you have fallen off at least 7 (sometimes they say 10) times"! You see, even great riders fall off from time to time. I have fallen off too many times to count over the last 20+ years.

Thirdly, only the best riders get up, dust themselves off and get back onto that horse. You see, the longer it takes for you to get back onto that horse, the less likely you will ever actually get back on. Falling off does affect your nerves, you do get a fright. The best way to cure that is to get back up and carry on going.

Fourth, the most common reason for falling off is riders who are trying to show off. When you are trying to show off, you tend to lose common sense (such a rare commodity nowadays) and dont think about the "what if"s. I have so many funny (true) stories of what happens to people who are trying to show off. Some of those time have been my worst falls. The close second of the "common reasons for falling" is not listening to instructions from riders/guides/instructors who have more experience than you.

Fifth, injuries are actually pretty rare. Falling off normally leaves your pride more wounded than your body. Yes, it is embarrassing to fall off. Of the hundreds of times I have fallen off, I can honestly say that the times I have actually been properly injured are only a handful. The one time I fell off, I hit the ground running (best way to hit the ground off of a horse...) and was just fine, until I tripped and broke my ankle. That was 4 years ago. I have fallen off probably 10-15 times since then. No big deal.
For the 20 odd years I've worked with horses, and for the 10 + years I have been guiding trails, the number of actual injuries in comparison to the number of falls is less than 10%. And the number of falls in comparison to the number of clients, well that is about 1 fall for every 30 riders.

So the next time someone asks me if I have ever fallen, or how many falls we have, I will still answer them the way I always answer -
"Yes I have fallen, too many times to count."
"Yes, there is the occasional fall, but I'm really lazy and dont want the added work of picking you up off the ground. So I will do everything humanly possible to prevent you from falling off."
and "Most commonly falls are the result of rider's showing off, so dont try showing off"

Until next time, RIDE ON

Oh, and be scared of me, more scared than you are of the horses....

My Real Family and True Freedom

Sorry I have been so quite for the week. Life has been a little crazy, to say the least.
I am writing late tonight, and I really shouldn't because I seriously need to get up early tomorrow, and we all know just how much I HATE MORNINGS! But I just had to share something wonderful with you.

We had a public holiday across South Africa today as the government wanted everyone free to go do their voting. To me this is pure foolishness, both on the part of the government and the part of the people who vote. I cant really blame them, we do need better rulers, we need a better system, but what they don't see is that as long as humans are ruling, we are not going to get better ruler-ship, we are not going to get peace, security, housing, jobs and so on. For those who claim to be Christian and yet still vote, well that is downright hypocritical, because Jesus himself said that his kingdom is no part of this world, and his followers are no part of the world (John 17:16). As for me, its a no brainer that I didn't vote, I never have, and never will. Actually wait, I did once, but that vote counts for all time! I voted for God's Kingdom by dedicating my life to him. If I were to vote for a human government, no matter what party, it would be as bad as voting twice in the same elections!

But enough about that. What I wanted to share with you today is a positive note. I spent today with a group of people that I call my friends, in fact, I even can honestly call them my family.

You see, although I have many cousins and aunts and uncles, many of them have immigrated or live very far away. Most I never hear from, so to me the idealist thought that "blood is thicker than water" is the biggest load of hogwash ever to be promoted. Half of my relatives I wouldn't recognise if they walked past me in the street. Heck, I learnt via the grapevine last week that my aunt, uncle & four cousins who have been living in Aussie for the last 6 yrs were in South Africa (in my city!) and didn't even bother to contact us. Really, I don't care and apparently they don't either. I wont say it doesn't sting a little. But the reason I can get on with my life without caring is that I have a family who does care about me.

Most of my "REAL FAMILY" is not related to me by blood or marriage. Many of them don't even have the same skin colour as me. A lot of them don't speak the same language. Few of us have anything in common, except one thing - we are ALL JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES.

It may sound crazy, but we have broken down barriers that mankind has made to become a happy family. And that is what I did today, while the rest of this country were choosing which corrupt person they want to have rule over them and steal their money, I was in a peaceful nature reserve with +-50 of my closest friends. My brothers and sisters.

We were from varied backgrounds, some who had been chased out of their villages with just the clothes on their backs 20 years ago by extremist ANC members who would have murdered them because they refused to vote, some who spent 3-6 years in prison 30 years ago because they refused to pick up a gun and murder innocent people because they were a different skin colour for the AWB. We were of differing ages and skin colours from my zulu brothers & sisters from Umlazi, to the indians from Isipingo, and us whiteys, from little 2 year olds all the way up to the 70 something year old gogos. We went hiking to look for the zebra, but made too much noise and pretended to be lions and wolves in the wilderness. We cooked about 50 kilograms of meat on a small fire, and shared food and smiles. We danced traditional zulu dances and then sang beautiful bible based songs. We kicked a pogo-ball around like a soccer ball and exchanged phone numbers.
We cried when we had to leave, not because we wont see each other again, but because for now, we had to leave this paradise with no bad people, with no pollution and city, just a bunch of friends who are as close as family laughing and having a good time together. That we had to go out again into a world that pretends to have broken racial and language barriers, but is still just as messed up as it was 10, 20 and 50 years ago.

Tomorrow is another day, and what will happen in the future of South Africa's politics will get worse, no matter what people try. What will happen in the future of all the governments and the world powers is going to get much much worse. But I know that I have a family who cares about me, a family who I can trust and who can trust me to always love them. And for that, I thank God and I thank my family.

Make sure you pop over for a look at WWW.jw.org

Maturity and Growing up

I was visiting with a very good friend of mine the other day and it dawned on us that this year we are both turning 24. Mid twenties! Its nearly 25, which is nearly 30, which is middle aged!

Ok, yeah maybe that’s a bit overboard, but you get the point.

We chatted about it for a while, and neither of us feels like adults. My friend is lucky; she still gets people thinking she's 17. Me, well a couple of months ago I got someone ask if I'm 34!!!! Yeah, not a nice prospect I'm telling you.

I mean, from my point of view I still feel 17 or 18, or maybe I think I should be 17 or 18. I always imagined people in their mid-twenties to be stable, responsible, independent and capable of taking on the world. But I am fast discovering that’s an absolute impossibility, at least in my case it is!!!

I sometimes wonder if true maturity is realizing I will never be mature.

I was so sure of myself when I was 18 and 19. I thought I was ready to take on the world. I wanted to get married right then, I had goals for my life, I had direction and I knew what I wanted. I was going to make that all happen, I had so much energy and motivation. Perhaps it was just teenage naiveness or maybe I'm looking at things with the jaded view of someone who has been through pain and discovered the world is not there to make life easy for me.

Because nowadays, I have no idea what I want. I can hardly go from one day to the next without changing what my favorite color or food is. I have no idea where my life is going. I have no idea even what I'll be doing tomorrow - let alone next year. Heck, I don’t even know anymore what I want to be when I grow up!!!!

Even most of my friends have changed. I hang out with a totally different group of people. I would like to think that my choice in friends is much better than it was 4-5 years ago. Funny thing is, my friends nowadays seem weirder, but I think that is because they are real. They tell it like it is, they enjoy life, they just be themselves. Unfortunately for me, I don’t even feel mature enough to have such awesome friends, I used to feel worthy of my friends as a teen. Now, I feel unworthy, I think they are too real and precious to be spending time with silly, immature me!

A few things have remained in my goal set. I still want to road trip - I just don’t know if I'll ever get to it now. I still want to marry - but right now I have no idea who or when. And I still want to live forever - at least I know I can succeed in that goal and I know how to. I still like my music. Oh yeah, and I still know I DO NOT WANT KIDS!

But right now, I am just trying to survive day to day. I am trying to work on my temper. I at least know I am not wife material right now (yep, when I was 19 I actually thought I was "mature enough" to be a wife), I can barely care for myself - so there's no way I am ready to look after a household. And just to save up every penny I can for one day (soon) when I hit the road.

So what can we say? Have I matured by realizing I am not possibly mature yet? Or has my maturity level "regressed"?

There are so many differing ideas of what true maturity actually means.

All I do know is that I have spoken to a bunch of people from 35-65 years of age who all say they still wish they were in their early 20s or even their teens and still feel like they are at that age.

What about YOU?

Review - Vouchers

Vouchers, I have never been particularly fond of using them. 

Possibly because I work with vouchers and as a service provider its a pain to work with. When it comes to a mass discount voucher company, especially like one like Groupon, I do everything I can to avoid it. Because those kind of companies fleece and cheat both the provider and the consumer. As for discount vouchers that come from a company or gift vouchers, I'm very wary of them, but I am willing to try them out if their Ts&Cs are not too oppressive to the parties involved.

As this is my personal blog and is not something of major consequence, I'm going to nitpick on my own personal pet-peeve of groupon. To the provider, they will bargain you down to do the service or the product at less than half the price you would normally charge. If you are a small business and are already keeping your prices below the average price, what that means is that they are not digging into your profit but actually into your day to day living. Then of course, they wont actually pay you before you provide the service/product, but will only pay you after you have done the service and got a certain number of vouchers. So in otherwords, you are working at half the pay, for a possible amount of income that will only come in about 2 months time. Then we look at the opposite side of the spectram, the consumer. The consumer is led to believe that they can have a product or service that is normally a high class special thing at almost half the price you can normally get it at. So you figure, oh nice, lets get it and you pay groupon and they send you the voucher. Then you start to notice all the small print and detailed terms & conditions. Ok, I better be quick about booking my spot, so you think. You try to contact the service provider, and they hear you are from groupon. Their instant thought is, "How can I get out of this? I didnt want to do it in the first place, but these obnoxious salesmen from groupon relentlessly contacted me every months for the last 2 years, when I finally accepted, the Ts&Cs turn out to be terrible!" So they put you off and block your number/email address or howewever you contacted them, they find a way to avoid you. By the time you realise you are not going to get your deal, its too late to go back to groupon and get your money back. Now you have lost your money, the service provider has lost a client and has a bad name, and groupon is sitting with a fatter bank balance.

Now I have luckily not been on either end of this spectrum, I am meticulous at reading Terms and Conditions of EVERYTHING (even the facebook signing up) before I hit "accept" or I sign it. So as a marketing person, when groupon contacted me, I asked them for all their terms and conditions and read them through. After seeing the rubbish that they are trying to sell, I said hell no. I also decided to never use them as a consumer/buyer because of how they treat their providers. However I have numerous people I know of and even some of my friends as well as hundreds of these experiences being plastered across the net, of people who have been on both sides of this scenario.

The reason I'm talking about this though is that I was recently given a bunch of Gift Vouchers and Discount Vouchers. Well, at least they were not courtesy ala-Groupon. I'm always a tad weary of vouchers. But, these were from the Durban Bloggers Meet that I went to at the begining of April, and I figured I could trust em.

So the first one was a R100 gift card for Woolworths as a gift from MyScoop. Never having heard of MyScoop before, so I headed over to their website, it turns out they are a company that connects bloggers with companies that are looking for social networking advertising. These companies are willing to pay a certain amount of money for you to do a blog about them, or tweet about them. Nice, so I have joined up, and thats why one of my last blog posts was about PrettySmart, and yes 've ben paid for that. YAY. Its always nice to get a little extra money in the bank. And MyScoop, thank you for the Woolies voucher, it has been used (but I ain't telling the whole wide world what I bought).

Next I had 3 x R10 off vouchers for Fry's Family Vegan Meals, they also gave a 4 gig memory stick with a Fry's Recipe Book and some other info. So if anyone wants to have some vegetarian recipes, contact me and I'll email you. As for the product, I'll be honest here, I am NOT a fan of vegetarian/vegan food, but theirs did taste very nice. Not nice enough to convert me, but nice enough for me to not say no to eating it again.

I got two R200 off vouchers for UBER. This is a personal gripe of mine, because I would personally LOVE to use UBER and recommend UBER to my clients. But they require you to use the app to order a ride, and unfortunately I dont currently have a device that is compatible with the UBER app. I have a Samsung Galaxy Star and an Android Tablet with Android 4.4 OS.
By the way, UBER is a high class taxi service with screened drivers and luxury cars, they only come on demand (via ordering a pick-up on the mobile app) and are cheaper than other taxi cabs. They are a fad that has taken the world by storm and are in top cities all over the place.

 I am still to use some of the others I was given, a voucher each from Filo Frozen Yogurt, and The Thrift Collection. And a Makeover Voucher from Stila, that I need to make time to go book.
To the wonderful sponsors, thank you SO much, I really appreciate the gifts.