Red Bull Cart Race: Jiva Inkunzi team

Tomorrow, 24th Sept 2010, marks one of the most exciting events in Soweto, The Red Bull Cart Race. This is a race where selected teams build home made carts and race them down a street in Soweto. Yup a good day of family fun. Don't ask how we got involved....it just started off with a small idea "hey why don't we......" and a month later the team is ready to race in a custom made (homemade) cart.

Now the rules of the race are simple: your cart can’t have an engine, it must have more than 2 wheels, a hooter and breaks. The rest is up to the teams imagination...and from what I have seen some teams go while...One team is called Booty Call and the cart is shaped like a boot (according to the sketch) To begin, all potential teams had to send in a sketch of what their cart will look like. Then Red Bull selects which carts will race on Sept 24th, 2010. This is the sketch we sent in:

Then the details are added…like team name, dance routine, décor ect. Our team name is Jiva Inkunzi which means dancing bull :). The core team consists of Avon (my husband), Reagan (brother inLaw), Elton (Avons Cousin) and Bradly (Avons other cousin). This team of great coloureds have been working intensively in developing a name for themselves. This type of branding came almost naturally to them, the choice of colours was pink and blue, the logo is a dancing bull, the cart is full of character and charisma. However; truth be told….none of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for the Engineer uncle Eric himself. He knew exactly how to weld the cart together.



Last night I got to witness the final product. The cart was super cool and was exactly like the sketch we had envisioned at the beginning of the competition. We also went through our dance routine (which has to be withing 30seconds). From the looks of it the Jiva Inkunzi team was ready to show Soweto what they were all about. Form head to toe there personalities and dance moves just oozed with coolness…… Meet the team:
From top left: Avon Elton Bradly Reagan (bottom)

Kanya’s Top 10: You know you live in Craigavon when?

I know some of you will relate to these top 10: You know you live in Craigavon when? But only if you live in the Craigavon Suburb. For those of you who don't live here this will give you and idea of some of the funny situations we go through. With all the little problems..we can only find humour in it all. Enjoy

1. You have large bottles of water stored for the “just in case the water doesn’t come on days.” And you do dishes every night because you get haunted by the time when you didn’t have water for 3 whole days and your dishes began to grow things.
2. Phone signal can only be picked up in certain areas of your apartment.
3. You believe you are the unknown neighbours security guard because you back door looks over their large house. And you are still trying to figure out what exactly they do to live in such a house because they never leave.
4. You get concerned when there is a different beggar at your regular intersection.
5. Purchasing sunglasses and phone chargers on Witkoppen or William nicol is a quite a bargain.
6. You grocery shop on Thursday and Friday nights because you know on Saturday Morning between 10am and 2pm…cedar avenue is way to stressful for your weekend. But you can deal with it during the week.
7. You have a gym membership but only use it to go shower when the water stops flowing.
8. You get disappointed when the billboard has changed from a pretty lady advertising a drink, to a pink Vanish advertisement selling stain remover. Its like contamination of your visual space….could the bottle get any pinker.
9. You can’t wait for the rainy season because paying R60 a week for a car wash is starting to affect your budget.
10. You wouldn’t be caught dead walking to Fourways mall which is less than 2km away but you will run around your block 4 times to get your exercise.
    
    And here is the bonus one:
11. 11. You have a “lights out radar” when you drive home. If you are driving on your way home for dinner and the lights are out at Cedar Square you can guarantee you don’t have electricity. You are able to instantly strategise where to find your next meal.

Have your cake and eat it too..Lies!

After a hectic weekend of craving cake, I could not resist an invite, from Marcia, to a treat at Isebella's bakery/restaurant (Pretoria).

Marcia had warned me about the cakes from this shop and she was so right, this was not your average piece of cake. It was beautiful, it even smelt good, just sitting ther on my plate. As I sunk my teeth into the Turkish delight cake I could feel all my female sense come to life. Woooooooooo...... HELLO WORLD. The icing was rich with flavour, with hints of Turkish delight pieces hidden within it. I hadn’t tasted anything like it before. The moisture and texture oozed with perfection. I savoured each bite like a kid trying not to suck on a sweet for too long…just so it wouldn’t finish too quick. It was indeed a taste of heaven.

Two hours and 3 cups of earl grey tea later, it dawned on us that we were not young anymore….we couldn’t have our cake and eat it too…we were getting to the age where we have to pay the price of eating cake L. The older we were getting the more the cakes were staying with us.…. On the hips and thighs. Marcia and I laughed at how when we were in high school we would eat 6 slices of bread minimum….. and we would still be skinny and hungry. Gone are the days … Soo gone