Crazy People: Quick weight loss methods

We thought we were sorted when we sent out the save the date. A nice montage of photos from our backgrounds - a little bit of India, South Africa, South Korea, Latvia and the US and London, of course.. It then dawned upon us that we needed to get thin fast for this wedding and since I was getting close to no exercise with my long work hours and exhaustive travel schedule, John decided that we should go on a slow long death March. So it was off to a National Park in California - en route to Sequioa to burn off some well entrenched cellulite. John is no softie when it comes to heavy back packs and long hours in the sun. On our first day we hiked about 12 km to our overnight camp only to find a group of noisy Afrikaners (yip Saffies) as neighbours.. It was freezing cold and we did not carry sufficiently warm clothing - part of the quick calorie burning strategy that we decided to pursue.

Along the way, we came across a herd of llamas as where being used a pack-mules for a group who had been hiking for an entire month - an entire month without our creature comforts.. i dont even think that john kim would manage that.. We set up camp around 4pm and started to make dinner.. not fun.. rice-a-roni ( a new experience and unlikely to be a recurring experience in my life) does not boil well at high altitudes least of all in a tiny pot.. but we shared and enjoyed something that was warm.

Good thing i decided to at least bring along a few coffee filter and long life organic milk in small packages to make some good coffee.. and then it was off to bed.. in some super warm sleeping bags and neighbours who decided to play some type of board game that just got louder and louder.. The next morning, we got up early and since it was not the most enjoyable sleep, we decided that neither one of us was keen to spend a second night in the wild and thus began our long walk death march.. 24 km back to the car through some very very cold and windy areas (in shorts..)

All I can say is good thing we started early and even better that we brought some energy bars along and a great purification pump.. We walked fast and stopped for short food breaks.. and finally at 7pm we got to our car... the next day I could hardly walk, a few blood blisters but once we got home the next day (a comfort inn never felt that comfortable before!), my clothes felt looser and my legs felt toned..

The problem was this kind of regimen was too early in the wedding preparation process because whatever weight we lost, we slowly put it pack on by the time of the wedding.

Lunch at the Gherkin in London

The Swiss Re Building in London is a well known landmark in the City. On one of my many trips in 2008, I got to visit the Gherkin as Sarah (university friend in picture below) now works for Swiss Re and invited me to the very top for lunch.. It is 180-metres (591-foot) in height, with 40 floors. Its construction symbolised the start of a new high-rise construction boom in London.

Sarah is an actuary and works in the health dept for Swiss Re as a health consultant. She and I go back a very long way.. all the way back to our first year of university when we were both studying together. We lived together or in the same residence for three years and got up to a lot of stuff, best not divulged in any public forum. She is the mother of twins and shares the same birthday of Eva, also an old friend who has twins.. I was also her bridesmaid (as well as Eva's) and they finally met each other for the first time at our wedding this year!.

The views from the very top are pretty amazing and below is one of my favourite photos taken that day.. london bridge and the tower of London. not bad for yet another rainy day in London..

The food was good, lots of foamy reductions and the tiniest carrots I have ever seen. The cheese plate was excellent... so good that Sarah participated even though she was about 10 weeks pregnant! This time, no twins.

Crazy People: Planning a wedding from 20,000 km away

This blog posting is one of a series of ten that will describe our wedding planning and the event itself. It has been written specifically for those dear friends and family of friends who could not share the day with us... this series will be interjected by other curious and odd happenings in our lives and will always be written significantly long after the event.. enjoy!

Today is about 3 days to the year when John and I decided that we should have our wedding in South Africa. We were actually in Chicago, at a friends wedding when we decided this, not fully realising the impact on our lives (my life) for the next 11 months, such a project would create.

Well if it were not for the internet, great friends and the world's most organised bridesmaids (Nothando, Thevendrie and Eva), I don't think we could have done it. Between the decision on wedding location and actual week of wedding, I spent all of 7 days in Cape Town. The first weekend was in late January when Nothando (Notty for short) and I went to look at wedding venues. I had shortlisted 8 farms and we started early on Saturday and decided that after number 4, we settled on Vrede en Lust, a wine farm near Franschoek in the Western Cape.

After making our decision, Notty and I decided to have lunch at the restaurant in order to evaluate food. I ordered a salad and cheese plate and a bottle of wine.. the food was good, the wine crisp so we felt satisfied with our choice. Given the number of other couples who were at the farm that day, I knew I had to lock in our date as soon as possible - the weekend of Thanksgiving, which we hoped would suit all of our American friends and family.

The wedding industry, the world over (and I speak from experience), like the baby industry is not a hard sell... it is amazing how the price of a cake for a wedding is often 3x that of any other event.. its still the same cake.. so if I ever decide that I am tired of the male world of investing, it is in these two industries that I will start a business, perhaps something project management related, given how my skills have improved as a result of planning this wedding. Layer on that you are flying in from the US to plan the event and all you get to hear is the upsell.. "Madam, you should go with the Norwegian water for your guests as local bottled water is not very good! " You would be amazed to hear some of the lines I heard..

Not to mention when Sarah Jarvis and I decided to head to Nordstrom on a Saturday morning to look at wedding dresses. Dressed in our jeans and not looking at all as if we were big spenders or on a big budget, we were first told that we had to make a booking. Then through Sarah's smooth talking, the salesperson decided to let us try on a few dresses - starting price $4,000 - for a dress.. The salesperson then began contacting me on a fortnightly basis, sending me little notes and invites to events as I guess selling one wedding dress is as good as probably two months on the floor in any other department.. Sarah, she is still calling me..

Back in the US, 3 days after my first time in SA, John and I put down the first deposit on the farm. We felt that we were done for now.. All we needed to do was send out a "Save the date" and we could put our legs up and relax a bit... yeah but not for too long..

Welcoming change in the US

Finally after 21 months of hard work, Barack Obama has won the US president election. I have been folllowing the election with earnest, got John to buy me a few Obama shirts and in the last fortnight started wearing them in the rather republican suburb that we live in.. I dont think I won any friends doing this but frankly I did not care.

I am really proud to be in the USA on this very historic day. Obama deserved to win- it was one of the best run campaigns in a long time.. no infighting and definitely no issues on the cost of Michelle's clothing and definitely no questions about corruption charges etc.. (Take note JZ in South Africa and Sarah P).

I signed up on Obama's website in January of this year and even though I could not donate, I followed his ground up campaign with great interest. America needs a person like Obama, just like how South Africa needed Mandela in power in the 1990's. This man is capable of effecting change.. and at this point in time the US truly needs help...

Well done Obama.. here's to the next four years. And I am finally proud to be living in America.

Jane & Paolo's Wedding in Pantelleria

Wedding season arrived upon us in 2008 and kick off the season of weddings, we heading to the tiny island of Pantelleria for the wedding of jane and paolo. Let me tell you it took us a very very long time to get there, all as a result of a delay at Heathrow Terminal 3 - we ended up spending 2 hours on the runway, which then resulted in us missing our connection to palermo.

As a result we landed in munich, only to take a train to stuttgart to get another flight to palermo the following day. so unintentionally we saw a bit of Germany along the way and in one day flew from stuttgart to palermo to pantelleria and where we so glad when we finally arrived and to be greeted by paolo's dad..



















The night before the wedding we had dinner at Casa Roncaglia, Paolo's family home on the island. what a beautiful place and the view from the house even better.



















Jane looked stunning in her grecian dress and the speeches by the parents and by each other were very moving. Paolo's mom's speech was truly heart warming and there was many a person in the crowd that needed a Kleenex. The wedding celebrations took place at Hotel Mursia (more of this in my next blog.. need to go cook dinner).

Old Friends in London

So finally, I took 4 days off and heading on vacation. 4 days is 27% of my total annual leave days - can you believe that.. give me higher taxes, more holidays, free healthcare (even if its the NHS) anyday!!!!

We kicked off our vacation over the July 4th - Independence Day weekend here in the USA en route to Jane and Paolo's wedding (next blog posting) and flew to London first for a night over to catch up with old friends. We managed to spend the evening with Alex, Kaunteya, Taira and Mike. Mike arranged tickets (actually our own box) to watch George Benson. The golden oldie was excellent and brought back many childhood memories. sadly Mike had to work and could only join us for dinner.. Indian food of course as this is London's speciality. It was really good to be back in London and chill out with some friends.

I enjoy the oddities and anonymity of London - the ability to be a "bag person" or trolley person in the case and hang out where ever you want for the day and not be bothered.. Well in London, you have to be a relatively rich bag person!!! (with a good umbrella).

We also made it Laduree to sample some Parisian macaroons and proper cappacino and criossants for breakfast... all in all our 18 hour stop over was well spent and thoroughly enjoyed..

The Red Hat Ladies....companionship in America...

During our trip round San Diego with the Jarvis, we came across a group of women who are part of the Red Hat society.. Thy had decided to head down to San Diego for a day trip and we picked them up in Old Town (the so called Spanish old town when the Spanish first set up shop in San Diego).

It started in 2001 when a woman called Sue Ellen Cooper decided to buy herself a red fedora hat. She then read a poem called Warning and related to the poem so much that she decided to buy a deep purple dress as outlined in the poem. She then bought a few friends red hats and over time women in the fifties wearing red hats grew in number. This is what the founder has to say:

"The Red Hat Society began as a result of a few women deciding to greet middle age with verve, humor and elan. We believe silliness is the comedy relief of life, and since we are all in it together, we might as well join red-gloved hands and go for the gusto together. Underneath the frivolity, we share a bond of affection, forged by common life experiences and a genuine enthusiasm for wherever life takes us next."

- Sue Ellen Cooper, Queen Mother

Given that life is constrained by rules, the Red Hat Society does not have any rules.. in fact it forbids them.. The rule it does have however is that if you are under 50 and want to join in, you have to wear a pink hat until you read your birthday (50) at which point you can don the red hats and purple outfits... Versace take a tip or two, there is a whole new market you can target..

Nothing like some unknown tidbits for you to start your day....