London Town

These pics of my London trip are long overdue, so not much talking on this post, I’ll just leave that to the photos...

Victoria Station

Reagents Park

London Zoo

Taken from Millenium Bridge

Shakespeare Museum

St Paul's Cathedral

Taken from the top of St Paul's Cathedral, 500+ stairs later *wipes brow*

St Paul's Cathedral, now making my way down

Tower of London

Tower Bridge

Royal Albert Hall

When Big Ben was still Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

Guess who we bumped into??

Ok, this is just 10% of the pics, sadly I couldn't upoad all!
All in all, awesome is an understatement, this trip was beyond, but true to London weather, the sun was barely seen, and I had packed for summer so ended up not wearing 80% of my clothes. Speaking of which, yes I shopped but not enough:(

First of many more international trips cause I am blessed, yes!

Keep Calm and Carry On

So a lot of these "Keep calm and carry on" posters have been circulating the Internet and social networks and many people have been jumping on the bandwagon with their own variations with a majority probably not even knowing where this originated. I myself hadn't bothered to find out until I came to the UK and there were rugs, mugs, towels, coasters, toilet paper (ok, not really) with this message. That was the breaking point, that was when I decided to do something about my life and find out *insert dramatic music* so I took one giant leap for mankind and went where no other man has (kind of) been before...I went to Google!

And this is what I came come across:



The original posters were as follows:




And that is how this phrase came about, folks. Now I don't want to see any of you using this all willy nilly (loosely)!



Yeah, what he said....


Oh wait, but I like this one:



Let them eat (cup)cake ;)

Something to chew on: Traveling 101

Back in my student days one promise I made to myself was that I would travel across the world once I started earning an income. The plan was to first back pack through Africa then make my way around the world. What I was not aware of is that a full time job is not really back-packing-through-Africa friendly. That plan was scrapped off the day I signed my employment contract and so a plan B had to be made...

Plan B...

Plan B turned out to be a trip to the U.K. London to be exact. I had such "great" (please note inverted commas) advise from all my well travelled friends and colleagues but after encountering a few glitches, I'm contemplating taking away this prestigious title from them because of the many little (but important) points they failed to highlight.
Because I'm such a good person and only want what's best for the earth, I have compiled a list of things to note for first time international travelers:

These tips are based on the assumption that you have put money aside and have decided where you will be visiting.

BEFORE YOU GO...

1. Sort out accommodation.
This is probably the biggest cost of any trip so if you have any friends/ family/ pets living abroad it would be best to base your trip on where they are located. This could save you tons of money, but it could also potentially land in you in Timbaktu, whatever happens there, so do choose wisely.

2. Book your flight
Remember, the further your book in advance, the more likely you'll find good deals.

3. Apply for VISA
This is of course only applicable if the country you are traveling to requires one. When going for your appointment make sure you take a three month bank statement, copy of your flight details, employment contract ( or proof of registration if you are a student) in addition to whatever you are instructed to bring.

4. Sort out your currency
Option A: exchange your rands for foreign currency; the advantage of this is having cash on you when you get to the other side and not having to worry about any other transaction costs either than your first purchase
Option B: purchase a cash passport card; the advantage of this is not having to walk around with big amounts of cash on you, another advantage is that the exchange rate is fixed to whatever it was on the date of purchase and you are unaffected by fluctuations
Option C: credit card; all you need to do is notify your bank well before you depart and then you can proceed to use it in the same manner as you would at home

THE DAY YOU GO...

1. Sort out your luggage
Rather take one big suitcase as opposed to two or three small bags to avoid incurring extra charges for having additional luggage. I learnt this the hard way.

2. No toiletries in your hand luggage
If your are traveling to the U.K the maximum amount of liquids your are allowed in your hand luggage is one litre. And by the way, if you only have half a bottle left of your 500ml body lotion, it still counts as 500ml. Thank me later.

3. Wrap your luggage
For peace of mind, wrap your luggage up. Wrapping by international flights is free. Anywhere else, you will pay approximately R50 a bag. Nobody told me this.



And that is about it. Well, sort of...I think I have helped you far enough, it is only fair that I leave some things out for suspension purposes AKA; let you get your fingers burnt as I did mine!

*takes a bow*

ENJOY YOUR TRIP...

Librarian Girl: "Think Like a Man"

I'm not a fan of self help books or any book that tries, in any way whatsoever, to instruct me on how I should conduct myself or life. I didn't even enjoy "The Secret" (I'm sorry, Oprah) so when I picked up a copy of Steve Harvey's "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man" it was out of sheer curiosity.
Unlike "The Secret" I actually managed to finish it. I was rather "underwhelmed", as I had anticipated, so when I went to watch the movie with seven others, I had no expectations. Boy was I wrong this time!

The movie was absolutely amazing! It was funny, appropriate and relatable. For once a movie targeted at blacks (by blacks, I mean blacks cause I'm honestly over using politically correct terms like "Africans" and the likes) and not portraying the angry black woman.

What? You don't know the angry black woman? The angry black woman (often played by American actress, Gabrielle Union) is the successful black woman with no child nor husband and is probably the only woman of colour who's made partner or sits on the board (of directors) in her firm. Her career always comes first and she spends her life proving to the world that she is worthy. She will not compromise her standards and men are often intimidated by her. She's the envy of many women too blind to see her inner cry. And that folks, is the Zeectionary definition of the "angry black woman". Moving along...

The movie follows four couples, each with a certain dynamic addressed in the book. One couple involves a smart (white) man who still "lives young" and lacks ambition. Another a not-so-angry (read as successful) black woman struggling to find love. Another casanova who won't settle down and the last a "momma's boy" (consult American dictionary for definition), Lord bless the woman courting a momma's boy!


This $12 million budget movie made
$82,661,239 at the Box Office (figure extracted on 18 May 2012). Quite impressive if you ask me! It's a pity that it was banned in France due to its "lack of diversity" (yep, I was also just as confused). Lacks diversity?? The movie has TWO caucasians! TWO! One short, one tall, how much more diversity does it need? Lacks diversity my toenail!

Sigh! If it counts for anything, little old Zee in Cape Town, South Africa, gives it a 10!

Thinking out LOUD: I tweet what I like, when I like

As an early adopter of most things, I hang my head in shame every time I tell someone that I only joined Twitter last year. My decision to join the Twitter nation was due to my mom joining Facebook. My mother, who has only recently understood the difference between "internet" and "email", sent me an invite (I'm assuming she got our helper to do this - yes, our helper is on Facebook too) which I did not decline. I deactivated my account instead.

My first drive on Twitter was to get as many followers as possible! After a numerous announcements to my over 600 Facebook friends, I got an enthusiastic response of FIVE followers! After a year of actively tweeting the number of followers has modestly increased. I get a few "RETWEETs" sometimes even. This makes me feel cool.

I never ask to be followed back, I feel like if people want to follow you, they will press that button.

Every time I get new followers, I always feel pressure to tweet something impressive.

Every time I lose followers I ask myself what I tweeted wrong, I scrutinise my Time Line but never find the answer...because I tweet what I like, when I like.

When a friend of mine told me she was leaving Twitter because it was useless I couldn't argue more! Twitter is what you make it. If you're following useless people, useless is what you'll get! When I first joined, I followed a lot of celebrities, now they only make 10% of the people I follow.

Twitter is information at your finger tips! Want to be on top of current affairs? Follow: @CNBCbrk @bloombergnews @mailandguardian and many more. Interested in financial markets? I suggest @Finweek @WorldBank @BloombergMrkts. Have an intense love for sports? Follow: *insert sports channel or great sportsman/woman here*. If fashion is your drug there are a wide range of bloggers, stylists, designers, stores and magazines. If you still haven't figured out "Hello Peter, twitter is also the quickest way to get a response on consumer complaints. I once got a Multi Choice issue I had been calling in for, for two weeks, resolved in five minutes on Twitter. I repeat, Twitter is what you make of it.

Twitter is the one place where you have a good feeling when you're followed. It's a place where you can watch tv without watching tv (if you're on Twitter you'll get this). It's where celebrities are born and some die (one fake tweet about the death of a -venry much alive- celebrity can spread like a virus. Its a platform for people to air their views on anything from race to politics, religion to professional blackism. It's where silly words like "tworld" "twamily" "tweeps" "tweople" "twiered" and the most infamous "TWAR" are made up over night, but don't be fooled, one spelling mistake and you're in for it! I can bet your last R1.50 that should you say "they're" instead of "their" or mix up "to" and "too", you'll have people attacking you at a rate of a million attacks per minute!

If you're sitting there bored of your Time Line, then maybe it's time to refresh your Twitter. Follow new people or organisations and unfollow the ones that simply take up space; I promise Paris Hilton won't send an army after you if you unfollow her ;)


@zeezilz

Something New

It’s Saturday and the weather is a tad bit cold, perfect weather to wrap myself up in a blanket and do something productive. There’s nothing interesting on T.V. so this may just be the perfect opportunity to start my GIBS assignment; a 15 page paper on the feasibility of a Basic Income Grant in South Africa! What do I do? Clean the house, and by clean I mean spring clean I push furniture around and make sure no corner goes untouched! An hour and a half later my place is spotless so decide to reward myself with a warm bath; I do some reading while I’m at it. After this I’m clean and the house is clean, so I sit on the couch and open my laptop. But, before I start, I must check out Twitter. Hmmm, my Time Line looks rather bland today, no model-related race related trending topic, no celebrity death hoax, no breaking stories. Nothing. Feeling sorry for myself as I am clearly the only person with no life at this point in time I close the window (note, I never log out), get up and start bouncing up and down and punching air like a boxer in a ring about to start a fight, psyching myself up to tackle this assignment, then I take a deep breath,  sit down and start BLOGGING!

I’m not sure when I suddenly became such a procrastinator but I think I have come to a point where I need help. There must be some pill or something to aid this, no? One thing I’ve actually been holding up on is upgrading this blog. I’ve been talking about it but nothing has materialised till now. I started with changing the header; added some colour in the hopes of bringing it to life. Next upgrade is in the form of weekly features that I plan to start and hope I stick to.

In any given week of a month I will be posting one of the following features:

1.       Come Dine With Me

Being the cool person that I am (as my nose grows) I suggested to some of my friends and colleagues that once a month someone hosts us for a three course meal. Not only will this give us an opportunity to have great (or not so great) food but it will also be a chance to talk about life and the challenges we face as young professionals and also just be silly as we often are when nobody’s looking. From a blogging side, I will be interviewing the host and if they are kind enough to share their recipes, I will in turn, share that with my readers (Yay J).

2.       Something to Chew On

Something to chew on will be my best attempt at giving advice. This will range from study tips, to preparing for an interview to managing your money. I’ve recently started online trading (though my portfolio is not as diversified as I would like it to be right now) so I will also be giving tips on that as well as I learn. Everything will be based on my opinion and experiences so I don’t want anyone suing me when things don’t work out for them. Just putting it out there...

3.       Librarian Girl

This is not to be confused with Michael Jackson’s Liberian Girl. Librarian Girl will be my book review feature. In this feature I will also be sharing my favourite movies with you.

                                                                   

4.       Thinking Out Loud

Thinking Out Loud is basically what I’ve been doing along i.e. the random posts that I put up once a month and what this blog has been up to now.

So that’s it. The new MegaZEEN. I hope that you appreciate these new additions.

Now I think it’s time I really start with that assignment! But first, I must  nap...

Thinking out LOUD

Really? Sunday, February 2012 was the last time I posted? This is pathetic, I'm really quite disappointed in myself. I have no excuse actually. No wait, I do...ok, I don't. Truth is, although I haven't been posting, I've been writing. The problem is, my pieces have been less than average so I would rather not subject the world (yes, because the entire world reads my blog) to mediocrity.

My mind is bubbling right now. That's been me lately, thinking too damn much (oh yes, I say words like "damn" now - a lot of things change over two months). I think about my career, family prospects, being a wife, being a mother, finishing off that book, having fat chats with Michelle Obama, Chris Gardner and Trevor Manuel over a cup of coffee. No, make that chai tea. I think about the opening of the young leaders academy that I plan to give birth to. I think of shopping around the world. I think about the library that I will have in my home and how I will brainwash my children into thinking a mind that does not read will suffer a slow and painful death at age 9 and a half and never live to see the 10th birthday.
I think of the day when I will sigh with frustration and say "money can't buy you happiness" because I would have so much of it yet still want more!
I wonder how life would have been if I were a Tambo descendant, if Oliver Tambo had been my great grandfather. Would I have inherited if only a portion of his greatness? I love that man. Ask me who my role model is and I will tell you in four words: Oliver Reginald Kaizana Tambo. May his soul rest in piece.

I think about whether I'm doing enough, if I'm pushing enough, if one day I will sit back with satisfaction and enjoy the fruits of my labour? WILL there be fruits? Or will I only look back to seeds sown but failed to sprout?

That's me. I think and wonder and think and think. So before I allow this post to meander as my thoughts often tend to, I'll end it here.

Let me revise the pieces I've written and see which ones are worthy of editing (something I'm getting myself use to) and posting. They say a good writer writes their heart out then edits later. I edit as I go, after all, I'm a perfectionist, not a writer.

Thank you for stopping by, even if you're the only person in the world who's taken the time to, I appreciate it. Even if it's you, Oprah, I see you! By the way Miss Winfrey, if you've ended your show, how are you suppose to have that interview with me that I drafted 10 years ago and have been editing ever since?