Dressing Up

Normally, there is never enough opportunities to really dress up, so when Anton's sister decided to hold a costume party for her 30th birthday, we had to do something completely crazy. It was established early on that make-up or bodypaint of some sort would have to be involved, but it took a few nights of brainstorming before we found the perfect characters.

Nightcrawler for Anton, Mystique for JeAnette and Illyria for me. (Blue sounded like a really good idea at the time, ok.)

Nightcrawler

Anton's Nightcrawler costume was probably the most complicated.

The tail was created from a wire framework, covered in blue material and stuffed. I think they weighed the tip down with a tube of glue or something. It was attached to his body with a complicated rig of hardboard, wire, fish line and bandages. (Trust a paramedic to do that)

JeA made the hands and feet, and added yellow mogde podged nails. The ears came from a costume shop and was just spray painted blue. We managed to make his hair with a mixture of Brylcream and black powdered paint. Amazingly, the Brylcream also made his hair curl, which was definitely a bonus. His face was just blue facepaint with detail in white pencil.

Mystique

Mystique was a lot of fun to do. For the hair we used bright red Bulldog Colour Power Gel and some more Brylcream. We used blue facepaint on her face, but it took a long time to get an even colour, and since time was running out, we switched to blue fabric paint for her neck, arms and feet.

Her shirt was originally turqoise and black, so it first had to be covered with a layer of white pvc before it could be painted blue. It became very stiff upon drying and we had to wet it before she could put it on again, but as it dried it took on her body shape perfectly. All the scales were drawn on afterwards.

Illyria

Compared to the other two, my preparations were fairly simple, but I was quite pleased with the result. Just a few blue streaks sprayed on my hair and blue eyeshadow or eyeliner for everything else, and I was ready to go.

The last photo was taken after the party, while I was putting the finishing touches on this. (The deadline was 6:00 the next morning)

Maria

Finally, I have a decent picture of my brand new niece, Maria Anspach.

She was born early Monday morning the 16th January, 4 days short of her due date, and late enough in January to satisfy her mother, who had been spending the preceding few weeks practising all known birth delay techniques, to ensure that D-day would be suitable for school terms, birthday parties, etc.

So far, she is one of the happiest and most peaceful babies I have ever seen.

Curry and Blue Rice

This is just further proof that I am part of a delightfully weird family. A few nights ago, supper was traditional South African 'Kerrie en Rys' (For non-SA's, this is lightly curried mince with potatoes, raisins and apricots, usually served with rice and lots of Mrs Ball's Chutney.)

Thing is, we all like brown rice, while my father is an adamant white rice supporter.
Solution: Cook a combination of the 2 and get your sister to sneak a few drops of blue food colouring into the mix.

This resulted in a delicious meal with a wonderfully retro 80's colour scheme, that left the whole family extolling the virtues of blue rice as opposed to boring, normal rice.

Of course, this just reaffirmed my co-workers' suspicions as to my overall sanity, but since I am a designer, weirdness is almost part of the job description.

And much thanks to The Saturnyne for his timely advice. I was getting really agitated with Hello and am now very much enthralled by Imageshack. This might not count as the unexpected eternal gratefulness, but it is still a big thank you. I might have to send you some freshly drawn chocolates now.

Attention: Joz

Aangesien ek die KSB, wat nou nie regtig meer klein is nie, nie vanoggend te siene gekry het nie, sal ek dit maar hier moet sê.

Baie geluk met die begin van jou derde dekade!

(Sal maar later die present ding onderhandel)

...

(It's working! It's working! It's working!)

In a little while I am going to the funeral of one of our family's oldest friends. He had cancer and on Sunday he finally died. He is the same age as my father. In a way it was probably better, because he was sick for such a long time. I've known him for as long as I can remember. He still called me Onatjie, even though we were the same length.

It is strange how something like this doesn't really sink in until much later, especially if you don't really see that person on a daily basis. In my mind he is still at home, walking barefoot and eating icecream. It feels like I could just drop in for a visit and he would still be there.

(The one thing that really struck me at the funeral was how such a large man could fit into such a small coffin.)