Wedding rant of the day...

So... as a young, modern, unmarried and career driven lady I am finding it increasingly difficult to politely deal with this outbreak of "wedding fever" that has recently occurred.


Now, by "outbreak" I don't mean the usual trend of "people in the same age group find someone they love and after careful consideration, they enter into holy (or unholy depending on your religious views, and your views of your new mother-in-law) matrimony, surrounded by their friends and loved ones". Oh no, this recent "outbreak" goes more along the line of "people in the same age group meet some random stranger and after about six months of dating they get engaged and nauseating chaos ensues".

Now this "nauseating chaos" ( in my recent experience) takes the form of the following:

1. Engagement photo shoot;
2. Engagement parties (sometimes more than one and in different cities);
3. Bachelorette parties (again more than one and often with its own photo shoot);
4. Rehearsal Dinner (again it must have a photo shoot);
5. Actual wedding day, at some remote location necessitating a weekend away for every guest (complete with videographer and various photographers);
6. A honeymoon (I will not bash the honeymoon - everyone deserves one)
7. A trash the dress shoot; and 
8. If we thought that the fever had subsided then please have a look at what popped up on pinterest.... after all of your friends get married you can put your wedding dress back on and do yet another...wait for it...photo shoot!!!!

[Now the wedding fever generally descends into baby fever which also includes about five different photo shoots and a "babymoon" but that is a blog rant for another day]

But before you call me a bitter old hag who has no chance of every marrying and has decided to take it out on the whole world, please just read on.

I totally support the institution of marriage and weddings are one of my favourite things. I think that there is nothing more beautiful than two people taking the decision that they want to have and hold each other for better or for worse. And there is nothing braver than walking into a marriage knowing that it will be hard, and that you will have to work at it everyday, but that other person is worth all of that hard work.

And that is where my problem with all of this "wedding fever" arises... when did the "glamour" of a wedding day begin to be more important than the marriage itself? When did it become the norm for one event to necessitate about five different parties and three separate photo shoots? And what are we teaching our children when we treat a wedding as the equivalent achievement of winning the Nobel peace prize (that is the only time I could justify one event necessitating all that hoop-la)? Bearing in mind that I am sure that even  if I ever did win the Nobel peace prize, if I tried to throw more than one party, have a photo shoot and kill the Facebook news feed with all of my photos, people would probably  think I was being ridiculous and boasting about my achievement. (Something along the lines of "look at that biatch shoving her prize down our throats...get over yourself already").

And that is just my point, a wedding day is not an achievement a long and happy marriage is. Maybe keep your photo shoots for your 50th wedding anniversary ladies...sure you wont be as young and lovely...but then you will actually have achieved something.

xoxo
Miss la trick

Tornado!

Say the word 'Tornado', and I have visions of the many movies set in the USA with giant funnels of air ripping through southern towns and causing chaos.
Needless to say, I have spent most my life being thankful that I live in a country where the threat of tornados is not high on my list of concerns.

Except this weekend SABC news reports that the Free State was hit by a Tornado, leaving hundreds homeless and killing at least two people in its wake.

So not cool mother nature!!!

Man climbs Kilamanjaro using only his hands...

I am guilty of uttering all of those, but then I read an article today that made me blush in shame for all the 'I cant's' I have ever uttered.

I'm sure we have all had one of those days. "My back hurts, I cant go to gym!" "I had such a hectic work day, I cant even think about playing squash" and, my personal favourite, "I cant possibly swim now, Ive just washed my hair!"

Spencer West, a double amputee, having both of his legs removed from his pelvis when he was five, has successfully summited Mount Kilimanjaro. Using only his hands.

For those of you who don't know, that's about 19,300 feet and about 20 000 steps.

ABC News quotes Spencer as saying "To use myself as an example – that if I enter life without legs and climb the largest mountain in Africa and overcome that challenge, what more can you do in your daily lives to define what's possible for you?" he asked. "We all have the ability to redefine what is possible -- whether you're missing your legs or not. Everyone has challenges and challenges can be overcome."

 So whats your excuse?

FIGHT AT TOP GEAR FESTIVAL UPDATE

Hello again la tricks, many of you will have read my previous post regarding the fight at the Top Gear Festival, involving two Durban MMA Fighters.

2oceansvibe has the version of Lee Dyer, one of the fighters caught on tape. It is always important to get the full facts / versions before passing judgement or commenting on the behavior of others, so I suggest that you give it a read below. 

However, lets also remember that there are at least three versions of any story : his side, her side and the truth. (postmodernists will argue that there are many versions of the truth, but this is not the time for a philosophical debate...).

ANYWAY, here is what I think :

Yes the video does not show the entire fight. Yes we don't see the whole 'story'. BUT I still believe that at that moment where the chair was thrown, he should have walked away. The retaliation was delayed, and an (apparently) innocent person was hurt in the cross-fire (Is cross-fire appropriate? I don't know what the appropriate term for being caught in a chair-throwing-fight would be? Cross-chair? Mid-seat?).

I also don't actually think that there is any excuse for anyone who gets involved in a physical altercation like that, unless it is TRUE self-defense.

What do you think?

 Below is Dyer's version, which can be found at 2oceansvibe:

There have been a lot stupid comments. And what gets me is that 90% of people commenting weren’t even there.
I’m a family man. I have a wife and two beautiful daughters. I’m a pro boxer, I don’t need to fight people.

Yes, I’ve been in trouble before, but a simple reading of news reports shows that I was found not guilty [on the 2009 charges of assault]. I was targeted because I’m a professional fighter, and CCTV footage showed that steel chairs were actually thrown at us in that incident, not the other way around.

Trouble always seems to find me, but I never go out anywhere to fight.
At the Top Gear Festival I was walking with my wife, and Trevor [white vest, black cap] and his wife. The three gents you see lying on the floor in the video were walking towards us, and they were clearly drunk, I walked around them on the left, and my wife went to my right.

As we passed them, they turned and said, ‘I’d love to grab a piece of this arse!’, and they grabbed my wife’s buttocks. So I tried to throw my beer on one of them, but I was carrying a can so very little came out.

At that point one of the three guys squared up at me and threw a punch. I ducked his punch and turned, and as I turned someone else started hitting the guy. I did retaliate, to defend myself after that man took a swing at me. Then the whole scurry broke out, and my back was turned to the tent. There was such a scene I honestly don’t know who else got involved besides those three guys and myself.

I tried to pick a guy up, because he was lying in a foetal position. As I tried to pick him up, I ripped his shirt a bit. Then a man hit me on the head with a steel chair.
I turned around and he was just saying, ‘Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!’
If you watch that video again, you’ll see when I turn my face, the left side of face is covered in blood.

That man [in the blue shirt, to the right of the frame] hit me over the head with a chair after the fracas had ended.
That’s when I lost it, which is what you see on the video. Unfortunately that woman was standing there.

I did go off my head, and I did throw the chair. That man cracked me a solid shot over the head with that chair. But no one sees that on the video. What you see on the video is such a totally narrow view. You don’t see the drunk guys start it, you don’t see any of the actual fight, and you don’t see that guy, who wasn’t involved in the original fight as far as I can see, smack me with a bar stool once the fight was over while my back was turned.

I’m not the animal that people are saying I am.
I’ve got the cut on my head. I needed stitches in my head, but didn’t get any because I was locked up. I got arrested at the stadium right then and there.
I’ve laid a charge against him, but I don’t know who he is. If I find out who is, he’ll be charged with gross bodily harm.

Something a lot of people have said is that they hope those three guys who were lying on the floor are okay, and so on. They’re perfectly fine. When I was in the cell and the police were taking statements, a police officer informed me that the three guys were perfectly fine. They only have soft tissue injuries, and nothing else. I suffer worse injuries every day in sparring. And in fact, out of everyone I have the worst injuries. My head is badly cut, and my back is killing me.

They reason they look like that in the video is because of how drunk they were! If you’re that drunk, and you get in a fight, you’ll probably pass out.
I understand that people probably think Trevor looks terrifying because he has tattoos and weighs 118 kilograms, but he’s a lovely man. But is that your only reason for judging someone? I mean, how narrow minded are people?
Out I’m sorry about everything and happened, this is not what I go out and do.

At Liberty Café (Windermere Rd, Durban)

Durban deserves something fantastical after the recent drama at the Top Gear Festival, and I have found it in the form of At Liberty Café in Windermere Rd.

This gorgeous little gem is nestled behind a very cool décor shop off Windermere in Durban.

Besides having the world's most amazing Red Cappucinos, At Liberty, is possibly the most relaxed space in Durban.

Try their homemade soup and beer-bread combo, under the warm winter-sun, with the strains of techno-swing in the background.

Or sit in one of the very cute side-booths, read your morning paper and sip one of DC's creamy cappucinos, with the words of John Lennon behind you.



Not only is the food and atmosphere rated ten-out-of-ten by your own Miss La Trick, but the owners, Jamie and Chris, are awesome company and delight in their patron's enthusiasm for their venture. Feel free to take your mom's group, business coffee meeting, book-club or significant other and spend the day!!

Not only that, but At Liberty is available for function hire, and I predict that it is soon to become Durban's most sought after wedding venue.

Top Gear Festival Drama (VIDEO) (UPDATED)

UPDATE : Have a look at my most recent post for the version of Lee Dyer, one of the men seen on the video.

The awesome Top Gear Festival, held this past weekend, was meant to be a weekend full of family fun. Durban was crowded and it was truly awesome to show off our stunning coastline and sunny weather.

However, there is always one bad apple (in the words of my granny). 2oceansvibe reported on a fight that occurred at the Festival after they got their hands on some footage. It didn't take long to recognize the protagonists, and soon enough more details, including names, were published.

Click on the link to read the details. I am not publishing them here because I cant verify the actual events of the day.

Without knowing the facts of who started what and who punched who first, I WILL say this, which applies to ANY such situation:

It doesn't matter who starts a fight like this. Unless you are actually protecting yourself against actual, imminent or immediate harm, I don't feel you can make the 'self defense' argument. Just be the bigger man and walk away.

My honest view is that there are many points in that video where these two could and should have walked away. But they didn't, and it resulted in a WOMAN being hit by a chair.

With the massive amount of violence against woman and children that we face in South Africa on a daily basis, it is beyond reprehensible that grown men of clear strength should behave in any way at all that results in harm to a woman.

I truly feel that a formal complaint should be made with the relevant professional bodies, so that a proper investigation can be made into the incident.

So la tricks, lets respect each other, and learn to walk away from stupid fights. Throwing a chair does not a man make.

Proudly South African...SA Model millionaire!

Candice Swanepoel, super-gorgeous, and apparently super-rich, has made it onto Forbes Top Ten Models List 2012.

The Forbes Top 10 models list are as follows:1. Gisele Bündchen ($45m)2. Kate Moss ($9.2m)3. Natalia Vodianova ($8.6m)4. Adriana Lima ($7.3m)5. Doutzen Kroes ($6.9m)6. Alessandra Ambrosio ($6.6m)7. Miranda Kerr ($4m) 8. Lara Stone ($3.8m) 9. Carolyn Murphy ($3.5m)10. Candice Swanepoel ($3.1m)

It is estimated that she made earnings of about R26 million rand for the year!! Not bad for a local girl spotted at a Durban Flea-Market!!

Now some of you out there may scoff and say that clearly having a pretty face is more important than Science and Maths, but let me say this : No one makes that amount of money without some business acumen!!

So from me, the great and all powerful cookie la trick, a GIANT well-done to our own home-grown honey!!!