Adam's First Break.....

...into advertising world. Here' my darling nephew, who just turned one, in his first tv ad currently aired on TV with his real mum and dad..How nice to have the family together in a tv ad ay? Proud of u guys..Hugs!

My Water Moments

All booked and confirmed, I texted my sister.

Me : Hey, guess what, your big sis had just booked a shark cage diving session in Cape Town!

Sis : What??! Are you nuts? Tau tak sharks in Africa are all ganas? They’re the type yang lompat2 you know. No need to do it lah..Scary lah sis!

Me : No turning back already lah, all confirmed and paid for Joe and me! No worries, should be ok. The guy from the diving company told me a 65-year old granny pun once did this.

Sis : Ayo! I rest my case lah sis. Can never stop an adrenaline junkie like you! Just promise that you’ll take care and take lotsa pics!

Determined to try this at least once, hubby and me proceeded with the plan and before dawn on the fourth day we were in Cape Town, we headed to Gansbaai, a town located about 2 hours from the Mother City. Btw, Cape Town is affectionately known as Mother City, believed due to the fact that it takes approximately 9 months to do anything in this slow-paced city ;)

Upon reaching the dive centre famously known as Shark Diving Unlimited, we saw around 10 other folks whom we believe came from all over the world already waiting. After a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereals, we were told that we were ready to go and the owner of the dive centre, Mike Rutzman gave us a briefing on the do’s and don’ts. Mike “Sharkman” Rutzman is one of the great white sharks experts who had gone free diving with the great whites and had produced numerous documentaries with Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Animal Planet etc. Wait! Free diving with the sharks? Whoa! That should be reassuring right? If he had survived free diving with the sharks, what more for us who’ll be going into the sea in a cage! Oh yeah, few celebs had gone shark cage diving with him and that includes Brad Pitt, Leonardo de Caprio and Matt Damon ! Here are the evidences that they had been there and done that ;) - Photos of them hung on Shark Unlimited’s ‘Wall of Fame’ ;)

We went onboard the boat after that and started moving towards the middle of the sea. Boyyy, it sure was a bumpy ride! The sea was choppy and with the speedboat we were taken into, I felt like we were almost flying! After about 20 mins, the engine died off, we could feel the chill sinking in and the wind got stronger. Almost too chilly for us to bear. “We’re here. It’s the home of the great whites!” shouted one of the skippers. “Get ready to become fresh meats!” Erkkk..

The skippers told us to change into our wetsuits. They also started throwing big chopped tuna fishes tied to a rope into the sea. This was to lure the sharks to come near the boat. Well, we sure didn’t have to wait for long. A big shark came near the boat and I screamed out of excitement, having witnessed such big creature in the clear water for the first time. The cage was then slowly dropped into the sea right next to the boat.

After getting the greenlight from the skipper, I went down into the cage into the 5◦ C water with the goggle on. Brrr...Thanks to the wetsuit, the chilly sea was quite bearable. The cage was big enough to fit the 5 of us – Mr Hubs, me and 3 French, Dutch and American men. Hey, I was the only girl ;) !(Girl power) It wasn’t easy trying to stabilise myself in the cage because the sea was still pretty choppy at that time. “Divers, down!” the skipper shouted. That meant there were sharks coming near the boat and we had to take deep breaths and dive into the cage. I could only sea clear blue waters and the cage’s steel bars that I was in until I turned to my right, Whoa! There it was, almost 2 metres, with gaping jaws and protruding teeth right next to the cage. I was overwhelmed with awe thinking of the fact that I was very near with the magnificent creatures of the sea. Measuring between 2 to 3.5 metres (!) more and more sharks came to the cage. There was once when a Mama Shark came too near that it hit the cage with its body. “I touched it!” said the Dutch man when we all came up for breaths. Seriously? Lucky man! At that time I couldn’t help thinking what if the cage broke and we became the sharks’ feasts? It was really terrifying but definitely exciting at the same time. After two hours in the sea, we left the sharks’ nest. For me, I felt a sense of pride for having done this and grateful at the same time for having the chance to witness the Almighty’s amazing creatures.

I had one of the Englishmen, Percy, who decided not to dive to take pictures and videos of what we were doing from the boat’s upper deck. But having witnessed the great white sharks almost face-to-face from the cage, how I wish I had bought an underwater cover for my camera or better still a camera that could be used in the water! I would be able to show you dear readers how fierce but at the same time, ‘sexy’ the sharks were.

Note: Images onwards are from Sony

You guys know what? Sony had launched a new water-proof Sony TX5 camera quite recently and how I wish I had it with me along at that time. Well, the camera is not only water-proof apparently. Now claimed the World’s Slimmest Water-Proof Camera; it is also shock, temperature and dust- proof. To top it all, it looks good; I would say it’s sleek and sexxxxxy! Choose yours from these gorgeous colours.

You can go underwater up to 3m deep for 60 seconds, shoot in freezing temperature as low as -10◦C, capture image in a dusty environment (imagine the Sahara desert!) and in your clumsier days, you’ll still be able to salvage the camera even if it’s dropped from a 1.5m height (while bungee jumping, perhaps?)

Definitely a suitcase essential for travelbugs and adrenaline junkies; the camera also :

Allows effortless panaromic image capture with its Intelligent Sweep Panorama Mode. How? As easy as sweeping your camera horizontally for landscape objects and vertically for tall objects.

Captures clear and sharp images in low-light environment. Do you realise how a flash can just wash out the scene? With its back-illuminated Exmos R CMOS sensor, shots in the dark, never looked better!

Enables capture of continuous shots i.e. 10 continuous frames per second!This feature is ideal for capturing fast action images. For your tennis or futsal sessions perhaps?

And last but not the least, it records and uploads HD videos too!

Regardless of where you are and what you do, you’ll still be able to bring out the style! Wanna know more about it? Check out this link http://www.sony.com.my/product/dsc-tx5. Love, love it!

The Things You Do In Cape Town

When in Cape Town, you :

1. Go up the Table Mountain. Table Mountain helps put Cape Town on the map as one of the must-visit cities. Why is it called Table? Because of its flat top, that's why. You either take the cable car or hike up to reach the peak. Cable car takes you up less than 5 mins but be prepared to spend at least an hour if you were to hike.

2. Go to Cape of Good Hope at Cape Point, a place of beautiful scenery and dramatic landscape. I believe any picture taken of the cape will not do the place justice. The best way to reach Cape Point from Cape Town is to go on a road trip. We rented a car and drove 50km down south of Cape Town to this southern tip of Africa which was once believed the meeting point of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Take the funicular up to the top for an incredible view. An alternative is to hike up lah. It takes 3 hours to hike up.

3. Shop and dine al fresco at the the waterfront. You'll find Victoria Wharf and Albert Mall, named after Queen Victoria and Prince Alfred from England from the 1800s. It houses shopping malls, restaurants, cinema, aquarium, craft market etc. This is like KLCC to the Capetonians. The place to shop for souveniers is definitely the Greenmarket Square. Things in South Africa are expensive I tell you, so nak beli stuff as ole2, the market is the place to head to ;)

4. Eat lotsa seafood. Seafood is abundance in Cape Town. Not forgetting, halal food is so easy to find too. Muslim population in Cape Town is rather high, and wait! Malay population is rather high too! Seriously? You'll find people who look like Malaysians walking around town and you'll wonder whether you've seen them in KL? To understand this, refer to the next point ;)

5. Visit Bo Kaap (Malay Quarters) . The colourful Bo Kaap area is the residence of many Cape Malays and Muslims in Cape Town. People staying here are mainly descendants of Malaysians, Indonesians and Indians captured from their tanahair and enslaved by the Dutch in 17th and 18th centuries. Being slaves and leading miserable lives, they decided to paint their houses with striking colours to lift their spirits and morale. That's why you'll see Malaysian-looking people in Cape Town rupanya..

6. Buy polished gems and semi-precious stones. Head to the numerous jewellery stores around town. My favourite is the The Mineral World & Scratch Patch. You'll find all sorts of gem stones such as tiger eye, onyx, rose quartz, amethyst, jasper, agates and crystals. Also semi-precious stones like topaz, rubies and sapphires. Diamonds pun ada you! You can either buy loose stones or those already set as jewelleries. The best thing is that you can kill time lepakking at the area where they throw all the gemstones on the floor. You can then buy those stones in containers for a certain price, depending on the size of the containers. What stones you put in the containers is all up to you ;). By the way, this applies to the tumble polished gemstones aje. Diamonds and the semi-precious ones kena beli over the counters ya!

6. See wild penguins at the Boulder Beach. I was like a kid in the candy store seeing these little cute creatures running by the beach. I've nothing else to say but they are just too darn cute! And do becareful when you're about to drive off from the beach, kena check whether there are penguins underneath your vehicles ;)

7. Go whale watching. From May onwards, the whales will be seen in Cape Town. We went to Hermanus, a small, quiet neigbourhood situated 2 hours from Cape Town. These whales pay homage to the warm and shallow waters of Hermanus to calf their young and mate. I was seriously awed when I saw the whales fluking and blowing both from the land and during our boat sail. They're just magnificent!

9. Dive with the great white sharks. In a cage, that is. Matilah kalau dive freely in the water kan? South Africa is one of the few places in the world that offers shark cage diving. We went to Gansbaai, another small town situated 2 hours from the city to do this. We were brought on a boat to the middle of the sea, the skipper dropped the cage, you went in the cage and witness great white sharks swimming around you! Mind you, the place where we were brought to i.e. the stretch of open water between Dryer and Geyser Islands, you'll see no other sharks except the great whites! The ultimate, lean and mean beasts!

p/s: I'm one of those in the cage tu ;)

All-in-all, these were the highlights of our trip to Cape Town. Will post entries on Johannesburg pulak soon ya ;)

Home Sweet Home

Hi gorgeous readers!

Am back with dry skin and sunburn but with tonnes of fond memories and photos...Will surely blog soon..Miss ya guys!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Breathtakingly Beautiful

On the way up of one of nature's wonders...Till later, guys!

With love from Cape Town.

Leaving On A Jet Plane

My dear awesome readers,

Will be leaving for South Africa tonight and back in 2 weeks. Guess won't be blogging for quite a while. If I jumpa free wi-fi (cheapskate nyer kan?), will perhaps post an entry or two okay? Till then, see you when I get back! Will surely miss gibbering, jabbering, babbling and pratelling to all of you ;) Till later!

Waka-Waka

The decision to choose a Latina to sing a Cameroonian-inspired official anthem for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa had certainly sparked controversies. The South Africans have expressed their disappointment over the fact that Shakira was chosen instead of the country's own artist. However, there are still camps that seem to don't mind and think it's just plain silly to squabble over such matter. Hmmm...personally I think it's ok. After all, she's doing a collaboration with the local artists for the song anyway. The song - Waka-Waka means This Time For Africa. It may be a World Cup to be hosted by South Africa, but they have to be proud that they are bringing it for the world to enjoy. Plus, with all the stereotype over the country with the high crime rates, poor health conditions etc , South Africans have a lot to prove. Anyway, Shakira may be just a marketing ploy kan? Like they say, daya tarikan...Anyway, I love the song. Enjoy the clip ;)

A Jakun Entry

Maybe most of you have seen South Africa's currency notes but a jakun like me had only seen these today. So, for those macam I, just sharing with you a pic of some of the South Africa's Rand (ZAR). They have the 'Big 5' printed on their notes. The term 'Big Five' refers to five of Africa's greatest wild animals i.e. lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino. Have only 4 here though..

Hope

There was definitely a big lump in my throat when I watched the season finale of Giuliana and Bill (G & B) last week..It was all from trying hard not to cry because I think the episode was pretty heartbreaking. Or it was just me being too sensitive and mushy?

After weeks of waiting whether G's preggers following the IUI procedure, the doctor broke the news that it was negative. G was seriously upset after trying to be so positive before that. Masa tulah I was like almost cried. G and B then went to another fertility doctor to find out more on IVF. The doc educated them about the success rates and the details of the procedure, which involves a lot of needles and sounds scary. They both then decided that it's a lot to think about, and they were going to get away to think things through. Both finally admitted that they're scared and unsure of IVF. G told B that she didn’t think she could put her body through that. It has been such an emotional rollercoaster them. That's where it ended. To be continued next season..

Hmmm..terbayang-bayang how it would be like for us nanti when Hubby and me embark on our IVF procedure.The needles, the side effects of all the injections. Imagine they said it's gonna be PMS and time it with 100! Frankenstein lah I jadinya! The hope, the anxiety etc.

I met up with my besties for dinner recently and I told them I seriously don't know how I should feel. Yes, I am hopeful that the IVF works and at the same time I can't deny that I could hear voices in my head saying that it could fail. Hubby consoled me that we know what the success rates are and semuanya is in the hands of the Almighty. But what is more important is that we try. And we are getting the blessings and support from our families. So, if you're 60 years old later and still childless, you won't regret it coz you've tried. Be hopeful but be prepared for the worst. But never, never admit defeat before you try cos you're already losing the battle even before it starts. Never stop amalan and berdoa. My besties even suggested that I read the book 'The Secret'. I've heard about how wonderful the book is but never felt the urge to pick it up in the bookstore. Maybe, I should buy it for my in-flight reading to South Africa nanti kan? What do you think?