My Top 10 Moments of 2013!

Hello Journeyers!
WOW have I missed you! To be honest with you, I have been a tad off my blogging game lately. For some reason I am completely demotivated. So if you have ANY tips on how to get me motivated again please leave 'em down below! :)
I was reading Jenna's Top Moments over at A Home Away From Home and she persuaded me to do my own Top Moments Post.

I will be sharing my Top 10 Moments of 2013 below in no alphabetical order!

1) 3 Year Anniversary - Yes, most of you must be thinking "why that as a highlight". Well it's easy. I love Cedric so much and for me to reach 3 Years in a relationship is quite a big deal. hehe. Because he has officially been my longest relationship. I will take that as a sign and keep him around for a while longer...or forever!

2) #JHBbloggermeetup - I came up with this bright idea to organise a Johannesburg Blogger Meet up. After lots of planning and hard work trying to get everything together while having a 8-5 work we did it! I loved organising it, and was extremely blessed to have so many amazing sponsors jump on board who spoiled each blogger and contributed to the very generous goody bags. I met so many lovely people this day and I know that some of them will be in my life forever. I love how blogging and social media have introduced me to so many wonderful people. We all came together at Vovo Telo Parkhurst where we spent most of the day getting to know each other better and just laughing the day away. These ladies are truly special!

3) New Camera - Yes another strange highlight, but I have been subtly throwing hints in Cedric's direction for us to get a decent camera. You know, to be taken serious as a blogger you need a fancy schmancy camera....haha. Well that may or may not have been one of my hints. And then after driving through the Rhino and Lion Park one Saturday and after Cedric took a few photos with our "mik en druk" he finally caved and off we went to Dion Wired to buy this little baby.....

4) Playing with Lion Cubs - I love animals, and I love them even more when they are still small! What's not to love about anything baby size? So you can all imagine my excitement when Cedric suggested we go play with the Lion Cubs at the Rhino and Lion Park. (this was actually the same day he decided we need a new camera, so thank you baby lions and boo boo of course) It costs only R30 for 5min / 10min (I honestly cannot remember now) and you get to choose between either cubs who are 2-3 months old or a bit older. This day we went to play with the bigger boys, they were 7 months and superrrrr cute! We actually enjoyed it so much that we took Landan back the next day so that he can experience it.

5) Sunsets next to the Crocodile River - As all of you know, in 2012 we started doing mid year holiday breaks. It's much needed, because as much as I love Johannesburg, the rush and insanity of this city can hit you harder than you think. This is the perfect way than to cut your year in half and enjoy a little break away from the crazy traffic and rushed lifestyle. We decided to go to the bush this time around and opted for a nice break in Marloth Park, Mpumalanga. We would spend most of our evenings watching the sunset overlooking the Crocodile river while sipping on a sundowner. If it wasn't for me not being alive I would have guessed that that was pretty close to how heaven felt. We truly have a mesmerizing beauty to our country and I am very happy to call this place my home.

6) Close encounters with some Ellies - On the same mid year break we ended our amazing holiday in Thornybush Game Reserve. For the people who are first timers to my blog, I have a slight obsession with Elephants. Only a small one. And on our one game drive I begged the ranger to please just find the elephants for us. And with a little tip from the others and 2 hours of driving in circles he decided to not wait for the Elephants to come to us but for us to go to them. I started getting a bit nervous when we started driving more off road and cutting down branches just to find out way. And then all of a sudden, we were in the middle of herd of say 30 elephants! Mindbogglingly amazing I tell you. These creatures are such beautiful majestic giants. The one walked past us close enough for me to just reach out without any effort and touch it. It took all of me not to do it. To show how close we were, the picture below was taken without me even touching the zoom button.

7) We bought Mo-Landy - Everyone must have noticed by now that Cedric and I have a big slight obsession with the bush and everything related to it. So it's only common sense for us to invest in a car that would take us to these places with ease. And that is exactly what we did. We bought the best/coolest/hippest you catch my drift car in the world. And it's orange! And it is very obvious that Cedric's love for Mo-Landy has grown much bigger than his love for me. No jokes. I think he loves this car more than me. We named it Mo-Landy. Why? Well when you look at it from the front, it almost seems like the car has a mustache (Mo). And it's a Landrover (Landy). And Mo also means "mine" in Kreole. So when I told Cedric this he loved the name. Mo-Landy. May we have safe travels all over Africa with you!

8) Elephant Sanctuary - Haha wow so I have 2 highlights that involve Ellies! This one was something else. I loved it! For my birthday Cedric took me to get real up close and personal with these magnificent animals. Early morning we were off to Harties to go "play" with Elephants. I was in such a daze the whole morning. It was all so perfect and I just fell in love with these animals all over again. Intelligent (I can bet they they are more intelligent than some of the people in this country), gentle (well as gentle as a wild animal can be), beautiful, interesting and the list goes on. I have such respect for them and I can just imagine how perfect my life will be if I can one day work with them.

9) Inspired by Oprah - This is probably one of the days that I won't easily forget. I received an email the Thursday from a PR agency telling me that they would like to give me a ticket to go watch the one and only Oprah Winfrey Inspire the c#*p out of people that Monday. I literally almost fell off my chair! Phoned my boss to ask for the day off and off Siyaam and I went the Monday to go get our lives changed. And man was I inspired. I choked back a few tears when she walked in from being overwhelmed and then choked back a few more while she spoke.

10) Island ending - We ended our year off by going to Cedric's family in Mauritius for Christmas and New Year. And I entered the New Year with my best friend and her husband. This holiday she experienced my horrible side (so so so sorry). And even though I had my moods we still had a wonderful holiday. Even with ups and downs comes good times. Memories that will last forever. What a way to end 2013 and welcome 2014!

I just want to say thank you so much to all the people that made 2013 a big success. We had our ups and downs but we definitely came out stronger and better. Boo boo, without you 2013 would have been a tough one, so thank you for sticking it out and still being there! My family and friends, I know I'm not always the easiest person to get along with but thank you for not giving up on me! I love you guys and will treasure each and every one of you forever!

Here's to 2014! We can only go up from here!

O You with Oprah Winfrey

Happy Monday Journeyers!
WOW we are having horrible weather in Johannesburg and I just want to be under a blanket, cuddling with Cedric while eating pancakes and drinking hot chocolate. I cannot believe it has already been a week. Last week I was watching THE Oprah Winfrey motivating women. And oh my how I loved it!!!!
When I received an email that I am invited to join the Five Roses Team for the O You event I almost fell off my chair. I grabbed at the opportunity with both hands and I couldn't wait for the weekend to be over. (That's a first)

Fellow blogger from Cape Town, Siyaam came to stay by me the Sunday and we hit the road early Monday morning to get our motivation - inspiration on! We were welcomed by the friendly O-Team workers and received our tags and breakfast bags and strolled through the sponsor stands.

We met up with Sue (also a fellow blogger, wait she is a writer with a blog), and we were off to find our seats. I was very happy to know that Sue and I were seated 2 seats apart from each other. And we had amazing seats, we were in the 8th row from the front right in front of the stage. I could zoom in nicely on every speaker. On each seat there was also a decently sized huge goody bag waiting to be discovered.

I wrote down everything that touched me and I am going to share it with you, maybe it touches you as much as it did me.

We were welcomed by O-You Magazine SA Editor Samantha Page and she started it off with a bang.

"Thank you for showing up in YOUR life" 

Our first speaker was Ariane de Bonvoisin, she is an author, speaker, entrepreneur and change expert. And thanks to her I was extremely emotional throughout the rest of the show. She had my brain working overtime.

- She graduated University at 19 and Yale at 23.
- Change is your friend.
- Listen to your "Inner microphone"
- Change is all about getting comfortable with the unknown.
- Your body is where the intuition is seated.
- From any change something good WILL come.
- Emotions are what drive change.
- Make time your friend.
- Follow what you love.
- Comparing is your despair program
- Power moves through those who serve.
- You are not required to succeed but at least try!

After this I was on such a high already and was looking forward to our next speaker, Mrs. Redi Thabi, who is a broadcast journalist. And at the time of the event she was sitting with a 6 day old baby. Yes she had a baby 6 days before the event! {Congratulations} How crazy and amazing is that???

- Pain is intense, but the tears do end.
- We are all on a quest to be excellent.
- Blow your inner vuvuzela.
- Love yourself and let your inner light shine.
- The lightness of begin...
- Bring the light into your relationship.

I was looking forward to the next speaker as my life is a bit cluttered. It was Julie Morgenstern, she's a professional organiser, speaker, best-selling author, productivity consultant and media personality.

- Ask yourself where will you make the space for change?
- It's a 4 step process to declutter!

• Separate the treasures
• Heave the trash
• Embrace your identity
• Drive yourself forward.

- Clutter represents an attachment we are struggling to release.

- You define YOU not what you own!

- Try something new!

And then the moment we have all been waiting for, the lady herself walked onto that stage with a crowd cheering, clapping, shouting and some even crying! I have watched her on TV for years and she has been an inspiration to me forever! Oprah Winfrey! 

- We won the Human Lottery! Make it a jackpot every day.

- Live your life with a open heart.

- Learn to serve from the centre of yourself.

- Master is my fate, captain of my soul.

- Spiritual being having a human experience.

- You get what you believe.

- You are not your circumstances, you are your possibilities.

- Be responsible for the energy that you bring into this room.

- Make every decision based on a spiritual connection.

I walked out feeling like a new person, filled with positivity and happiness! I was a little bit depressed because I couldn't actually meet her but like she said..."You get what you believe". :)

I want to say thank you very much to Five Roses for inviting me along. I love you guys and your tea even more! ;) hehe

And another thanks to O You Magazine SA for a wonderful event, I cannot wait for the next one! I am working on following my dreams and becoming a better and stronger person. Life is great! And I love it!

Have a wonderful week!!!

Stay blessed!

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Disclaimer: I received a complimentary ticket from Five Roses. As always, all thoughts and opinions are our own. All of the content and images posted are my own unless otherwise specified / linked to the original source. Please feel free to share photographs and material from this site but please link back to the original image or post.