DOING LIFE

SCRAPPING IN THE BUNDUS - 16-18 March 2007 Well, what can I say … actually not enough … but here goes. Our long awaited Scrapping Pamper weekend arrived with DEVISTATION on Friday morning. A mini hurricane hit Durban during Thursday night, resulting in six sleep deprived and rattled KZN Bundu Chicks (… quite a few feathers out of place…). For myself, there was no time for sleep as the storm hit Kloof just after 10pm. With Conroy being in ‘safe’ old Cape Town, I sat up frightened and lonely in bed as wind gusts, hail, thunder, lightning and rain were pounding away at our house from all directions (even directions I did not know existed). Whilst clutching with all fours onto the bed, the electricity said cheers. As I was ducking out of bed on my way to get access to a torch (… which I fortunately knew where to find...) the alarm went off. By now I was barely surviving with just an adrenalin rush keeping me going. With the startling noise of lighting, thunder, hail, rain, wind and an alarm siren accompanied by deafening heart beats, I did a quick investigation of all the alarm sensors to make sure that they are gecko free. Once this investigation was complete, I made my way back to the bedroom, setting the alarm once again. The storm subsided between 1 and 2am and just as the adrenalin rush eased into a gentle heart beat – the phone rang. It was COIN Security checking whether everything was in order (me thinking: you must be joking, how can everything be in order after such a storm), more than two hours after the alarm went off. As we drove down Fields Hill on our way to the airport mid day Friday, we were faced with serious destruction. Countless trees’ canopies were twisted off by the gusts of wind and horizontal tree trunks which have destroyed countless boundary walls. Some schools were closed and business people got to work late with roads being inaccessible due to flash floods and fallen trees. We got to a very hot Nelspruit International by way of a 29-seater propeller aircraft piloted by a runway maniac, motoring around runway corners on take-off and landing, but otherwise the flight was very pleasant. We were pleasantly surprised by the unique rustic beauty of Nelspruit airport, revamped with thatched roof buildings about two years ago. It was very neat and clean and parking was cheap at R2 compared to Durban’s R8.

After being collected at the airport by Bundu Lodge personnel we arrived at the Lodge just before 4pm. Suitcases were hastily unpacked and everyone headed off for a drink on the verandah accompanied by peacocks and bunnies. Proceedings kicked off just after 5pm aided by tantalizing STRAWBERRY DAIQUIRIS.

Each delegate had a huge A3 box (might I mention - closed and sealed with ribbons) screaming at them to be opened, but unfortunately curiosity killed the cat (delegate) and supper was first on the program. Supper out of the way, everyone scurried off to the conference room where we got instructions to immediately identify ourselves with our homemade nametags. Surprisingly, I walked off the prize for the best scrapped name tag (see pic of prize hamper).

With all the formalities out of the way we finally got to lift the lids of our goodie boxes to get the kit for our first project which was an ‘off-the-page’ design. For me, being a practical soul, this was one of the best projects of the weekend i.e. scrapping a DVD cover/box. We had to use pics of ourselves to decorate the DVD cover. We also made a booklet for the inside of the DVD cover in which we could journal our Bundu weekend experience. Photo’s of our make-over/photo shoot, which was taken during the course of the weekend by Marius and Estelle was burnt onto the DVD for us to take home as a memento. We were all superbly impressed with each others looks after Klynt did a mini-makeover on each of us before our photo shoots. Although I must add that I am not keen on make-up in general. In my view, all of us have our own natural beauty.

Thanks to the photographers, Marius and Estelle for being bribable to take some group shots of the KZN Bundu Chicks sipping on our STRAWBERRY Daiquiris, plucking up courage for the major ‘make-under’ later in the evening (Saturday). Sorry Klynt no insult to your creativity with our ‘make-overs’ earlier on. Just before supper on Saturday, making our way through a wedding reception the six of us with Michelle carrying our ‘calendar girls’ kit headed for the ‘koppies’ just behind the lodge. Amidst an electric storm and darkness looming Jenny found the perfect spot for us. Scrambling for dear life and cover everyone got ‘it’ off and on i.e. hats, etc. Yours truly had to get kitted out, set up the tripod with the camera on ‘self timer’ and get the girls to put their best side/front forward, no need mentioning that this all had to be done ten times one handedly, the other hand covering ‘bare essentials’. Some stray wedding guests were scanning the ‘koppies’ from down under at the lodge - probably trying to establish from where all the giggling and gasping sounds are coming from – hopefully not to establish what all the flashings of white was up in the ‘koppies’. After seeing the nice shots afterwards, the girls agreed that all the excitement was worthwhile. For those of you who don’t believe that we were brave enough, well here’s just a snippet of proof that we actually did it!

We headed off for supper after our ‘koppie’ shoot-out, just making it in time before total darkness. After supper we revisited our rooms to reluctantly start our ‘make-unders’ for the pajama party contest at 8pm. If anyone of you perhaps wondered how six zebras that have been arrested for secretly scrapping look like whilst DOING LIFE in the Bundus, here’s the real thing (mug shots an all).

Oh yes, one of the Doing Life Zebras (Tracy van Zyl) was celebrating her 32nd birthday as well – poor thing hope she will ‘get out’ before her next birthday and won’t be in need of scrapping therapy for withdrawal symptoms. Thanks Michelle for seeing to it that we at least had stacks of fun and laughs.

The KZN Bundu Chicks are planning a reunion later in the 2007 and will be publishing their weekend’s scrapping on DOING LIFE. Thanks to Karin Botha who presented the ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ class – Karin you are an excellent presenter, so calm and relaxed. Your layout also had fantastic techniques which we will definitely use again, especially the fan booklet which reminded us of Karen Burniston’s (qualified engineer) creations. It was just a shame that we only received the photo requirements for this class three days in advance. Claire Also thank you to the DESIGNERSNOTES’ organisers Claire and Dee for a carefree weekend of scrapping and for the lovely freebies and supplies in our kits. The change of scenery from Durbs to the Lowveld did us the world of good. Here’s just a few tips from the KZN Bundu Chicks which you can perhaps incorporate with your next Scrapping Weekend away: (1) What about a program for each delegate setting out the happenings of the weekend with designated times? (2) It could also be helpful if each presenter has an informed assistant on duty for the duration of a class. (3) Have a designated area for everyone attending the Scrapbook weekend to sit together during mealtimes to aid in everyone getting to know each other i.e. not mixing with other venue guests. R E S U L T S (Competition: KZN Bundu Chicks Collective Age) Thank you so much to those of you who guessed our ages as 21 years each. You made us feel eternally young. As for the person who guessed our collective age as in the thousands – sorry for you, but it takes one ‘ancient sucker’ to see another! Also a big thank you to those who commented along the way and kept the readers entering the competition. Here’s the youthful chicks unfortunately DOING LIFE.

(DOING LIFERS from top to bottom: Inmate Sheila Corfe, Inmate Yours Truly, Inmate Jenny Reid, Inmate Kerry Harper, Inmate Tracy van Zyl and Inmate Michelle Ramsay)

I know all of you have been reading and reading and reading all the unimportant stuff above and wonder when will she now eventually mention the collective age. Okay, here goes. Unfortunately no one was able and willing to guess the correct age which was 254 years. However, there is still a consolation prize for the person who was the closest. Congratulations to Susanne van Niekerk (the current sleeping student of mine) who came to within three years of the correct age i.e. 257 years.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this competition. Keep an eye on DOING LIFE which will definitely host another competition in due course. - Signing of from civilized Kloof, Durban