having not been here for a while, i find myself with so much to tell you, but i think bite sized chunks will be more digestible, so i’ll just tell you about the weekend.

saturday night was the you spectacular.

these events are so peculiar, there is so much artifice, but it’s part of the business i’m in, so we dress up and we have our picture taken, do our little sound bites and we air kiss and behind our raised hands we make snarky comments and give desultory applause as the “winners” are announced. i probably shouldn’t be saying this, but i’m telling it like i see it. i can say the mc, nic rabinowitz was very funny and managed to get the jaded crowd laughing with his spot-on impersonations.

i dressed maggie benedict, one of the gorgeous young actresses on binnelanders for the event and she looked gorgeous. a few binnelanders cast members gathered at my house to get ready and have a pre-event cocktail before we convoyed over to emperor’s palace. (doesn’t emperor’s palace bring to mind the emperor’s clothes? that fable about people not willing to speak the truth…… hmn……)

maggie came for a fitting in the chaos that is my sewing store room

anyhoo…..

i also wore something from sass designs, but seeing as i feel like the oros (wo)man at the moment, i opted for much accessorizing, including the bluest of eye-shadows and a crazy feathered concoction on my head to match the feather boa. all rather OTT to distract the attention from the fact that i am at the moment, the embodiment of va-va-va-voom!  i also wore the most beautiful swarovski crystal bracelet which proved to be a nightmare, snagging my dress and i have to publicly apologise to one of my favorite people, jared orlin, entertainment ed. at you magazine and fellow blogger, because i suspect that i ruined his spectacular suit when i gave him a hug and got attached. i’m so sorry jared! 😦

i think lasz is closing his eyes in disbelief.

and i never thought i’d see the day, but here i am with the koekemoer himself who really is the sweetest fellow. nice to meet you vern!

i should have taken a pic of the dinner – each person was served an entire baby chicken which most people didn’t even touch. we asked the servers whether they’d be able to take some of the food home with them, and i was appalled to hear that every single item of food got thrown away. well, we were having none of  it at our table, so, dressed to the nines, we emptied out the goodie bags and filled them with the untouched chickens from our table. we spread the word to the rest of the binnelanders cast and i think there were  a number of very happy car guard/security guys in the parking lot when we left.  we must have looked very odd, shoving chickens into our bags, but i really couldn’t care less. it’s the waste that freaks me out. surely there must be a way to recycle food from these events where a lot of the people don’t even eat, to people who are going hungry and in dire need. any ideas how to do this, people?

i used to be one of the die-hards at these events, but i think i’ve gotten sane over the years. we called it early enough for me to be pretty much sober still by the time we left. 😉 and seeing that i was planning on being up early to do my 67 minutes for madiba day, i was happy to leave the draining of the dregs to the party-people. as robin, one of the other actresses and i were saying as we left the party – comes a time when you make-up is going south, your outfit is wrinkled, your feet hurt, and if you drink anymore, you’re bound to make a fool of yourself and even then the walk back to the car in torturous stilettos in interminable.

i’m so glad i now know when to exchange my glad rags for my pj’s.  and i’m glad to do it gladly.