If the simple “smiley face” is just not good enough any more and you’re finding yourself inventing new “smileys” to express yourself, then Emoji Free! is the app for you!
You can use it in emails, notes, messages and more allowing you to be creative while getting your point across.
Take a look here for the full How To…
Angel from The Cupcake Lady recently blogged asking who wanted to be a part of her next round of beta testing. I of course put my hand up and waved wildly until she noticed! 
I asked to try out the Fluffy Coconut Cupcakes and started counting down the days until I would collect them (this past Monday). Not only are these cupcakes a beta test, they are also going to be another of Angel’s entries for the Food24 Cupcake Competition! (Holding thumbs Angel!!)
Both the cupcake mixture and the icing include dessicated coconut which gives you a subtle coconut taste. And the not-too-sweet cupcake mixture, temptingly complimented with the sweet icing mixture, allowed me to eat one after the other without feeling guilty (would I ever though?) and just pacifying my sweet tooth. I’d say this is a serious contender for the Food24 Cupcake Competition!
Hugs & Kisses
Jessica Giggles
PS: If you would like to order your own batch of cupcakes, get in touch with Angel by visiting her site.
*Picture taken off The Cupcake Lady’s blog
This time last week I was coming off a sugar and adrenaline fueled high after spending the day at Gold Reef City with some amazing guys – Gary, Ross, Jonathan and Derek (yes I was the rose amongst the thorns…well technically). It was a bitterly cold morning but we braved the weather to spend our day off at Gold Reef City.
Gold Reef City was quite quiet as it was the day after the public holiday so most people had taken a day’s leave and gone away for the weekend, or they were still stuck at work. But quiet is just the way Gold Reef City should be! It means no waiting in long queues to go on a ride. It means not having to wait for a table at one of the restaurants. It means not having to wait in line for a bathroom cubicle when you’re just about ready to wet your pants. It means happiness and adrenaline and sugar highs and skipping between each ride.
We finally arrived around 10am and stood in the (short) line for entrance tickets. (We would have arrived on time had Gary been paying attention to where he was going and not talking on the phone…tsk tsk…) As I haven’t been to the park in years I was quite surprised at the price of the tickets. I thought they would have been more expensive by now, but maybe they were slightly cheaper because June is an off-peak season?! Who knows…
You can tell how bitterly cold it was by Ross’ facial expression below (the guy on the very right of the pic) – he’s smiling but he’s gritting his teeth at the same time as trying to warm up his hands. It was so cold that after my first rollercoaster ride (the yellow loop-di-loop pictured first), I had to ask Jonathan if I could please borrow his jacket that he’d left in the car after putting something warmer on.
Not having to queue for any rides was a highlight as it meant we made the most of our day and went on as many rides as possible. Thinking back…we probably shouldn’t have gone on the loop-di-loop straight after breakfast… But we did! And for the most part I had my eyes closed because it was a little too much for me to handle. We went on the “miner’s revenge” and the swings and the shells and the ride next to the shells (which I went on twice) and the “runaway train” (where I thought I was going to fall out even though I had a seat belt on) and the “love boat” and and and… It was awesome…a little scary at times yes…but a fun-filled day nonetheless!
A pic of the boys… (From left: Derek, Gary, Jonathan and Ross)
The packet of candy floss I devoured. (I did share a little bit just for your information…)
I really love that they called the miner’s museum “The Crush”. It was quite informative though I’m sure it hasn’t been updated in a few years…
And I just loved this old carriage parked between the miner’s museum and the entrance to go down into the mine. Can just imagine having a very numb bum after travelling to wherever and back after sitting on the not-so-comfy-looking seat.
These peacocks were everywhere! I managed to snap one just before we left that was soaking up the last of the day’s sun.
And lastly… What would a fun-filled day at a theme park reliving your childhood be without an ice-cream?! The weather was a bit chilly for an ice-cream. And my hand did need to thaw once I’d finished eating. But I didn’t quite fulfil reliving my childhood by getting it all over my face. And it was the perfect end to a great day out! I would tell you to ask Jonathan as he’d back me up, but he’s convinced he didn’t eat the ice-cream and the pic below is photoshopped… 
What did you get up to?
Hugs & Kisses
Jessica Giggles
PS: As you can see, I have CrossProcessed the living hell out of my pics… What can I say, I love my CrossProcess app.
My last day in Abu Dhabi seemed to have dawned so quickly! I wasn’t ready for it to be my last day with my mom! I wasn’t ready to pack my bags and head home. But the time had come and I decided to make the most of our last day together…
We started off the day with another swim at the Corniche. The water was lovely – just the right side of warm but cool enough that it was refreshing. Then it was time to go home and get ready for the day’s activities. I did an online check-in for my flight which meant that I didn’t need to be at the airport 3 hours before my flight, but rather an hour before so I could check in my luggage and have enough time to get through passport control and find the boarding gate. Once that was done and we were ready, we went to the material shop as I had decided to get 2 pairs of pants made by my mom’s tailor. I had brought them with me and I got chatting to my mom about how well they fit etc etc, and she suggested we find some material and have duplicates made. What a brilliant idea! And even more exciting was the huge discount we were given on the fabric!
From there we went past a Dirham store which I called a Dollar Store as everything is “cheap and cheerful” but mostly there is tons of crap that you dig through to find a gem. It was fun shopping here and made me super happy to know I had bought some things that cost me less than a pair of shoes in SA.
After my little shopping spree, my mom took me to meet Achmed and Carrie. Achmed is a doctor and practices at one of the main hospitals in Abu Dhabi. He was also the one who came to my mom’s aid when her husband passed away. Carrie is his wife and is American. She’s been living in Abu Dhabi for the past several years but it still sounded weird to hear her speaking Arabic with her accent. I asked her if she could please write my name in Arabic as it’d been something I’d wanted to know since arriving (it is read right to left).
We left their house around 3:30pm and went past another Dirham store so I could have another small spree, and we were home by 5:30. We went for a quick swim at the apartment complex’s indoor pool to cool down and then it was time for me to bath, finish packing and have a small bite to eat before leaving for the airport.
Even though I didn’t want my trip to end, it had to. And it was sad to hug my mom goodbye knowing I wouldn’t see her again until her trip to Johannesburg at the end of July. But all trips need to end and we always need to get back to life.
I got through passport control very quickly and headed to my boarding gate for my 10:30pm flight. Boarding started about 15 minutes later than scheduled but you could easily tell the South Africans apart from the other passengers as they were already queueing from the time as listed on their boarding passes.
The flight was uneventful save for the guy behind me who must not have known that the screen (for viewing movies etc) was a touch screen as he was banging and hitting it which resulted in my head feeling as if someone was hammering it. I did try and get some sleep on the plane though it was difficult as I had the stupid man to deal with, and because I find it difficult to sleep in planes.
We arrived at 4:30am (about 30 minutes earlier than expected) and I breezed through passport control and again had my bag delivered on to the carousel first.
I was home and my trip was officially over. I was now left with tons of laundry, and gifts to deliver. But all that could wait! I changed into my pyjamas and climbed into bed and enjoyed a three hour nap!
Hugs & Kisses
Jessica Giggles
We began our Friday morning with a walk along the Corniche. It is a long road (about 6km) with beaches and pathways and picnic spots and small gardens to the one side, and roads and city buildings to the other. We finished off our walk by going onto one of the public beaches so I could swim in the sea (the Persian Gulf to be more specific). As a Friday is technically a Sunday in the UAE, the beach was relatively quiet. After our swim we took advantage of the quietness and hit the shops as these too would be quiet until around lunchtime.
We went past the same shop I had bought my swimming costume at so I could buy a bikini top to match the bottoms. We also went past the Krispy Kreme Doughnuts store as I just had to have a taste of these. We got 6 doughnuts, each a different flavour. Honestly, when I ate them later that day, I discovered that they weren’t out-of-this-world amazing. Perhaps I can attribute that to having super high expectations and having a whole day to salivate over them… Either way my sweet tooth got satisfied.
After our small shopping trip we made our way home to have some breakfast, shower and get ready for the day’s activities. Our first stop was Marina Mall so that I could go up the tower and get a 180 degree view of Abu Dhabi. It was quite spectacular! We then visited a few shops to see if anything caught our fancy before getting back into the car and heading to the port.
The port was an eyeful! There were so many dhows and they were so closely packed together that you could hardly tell one apart from another. And then there were the masses of wire fish nets strewn on the dock.
And then we passed a “dhow graveyard”. Excuse my attempt at putting 2 separate photos together but you get the drift.
We then headed on to Saadiyat Island to the Saadiyat Al Mannaret Museum to see the Mesopotamia exhibit. The exhibit was amazing! Not only did you not have to pay to enter the exhibit, the information booklets were free too!
Mesopotamia means the land between two rivers, thus it had very fertile land which allowed it to become known as a granary (storehouse for grain) of the ancient world. It had three regions – Sumer to the extreme south, Assyria to the north, and Babylon in the centre. The cities of Mesopotamia were centres of learning and knowledge. Babylonian astronomers studied the night sky and recorded movement of the moon and planets. Cuneiform tablets were kept in the palaces and were used to record aspects of the city (land belonging to this person, that person bartering with another person, etc). These cuneiform tablets were made from clay and a blunt reed was made to imprint their alphabet. There was so much to see that the exhibition left me gobsmacked! The huge pieces of stone slabs portraying different battle scenes, the various sized cuneiform tablets, the clay pots, the beaded headwear, etc etc. I wish I could have taken photos of some of the items but unfortunately museum policy prohibited this.
After exhausting our feet walking through the exhibition, we decided it was time for a late lunch. We drove back to the city and enjoyed lunch at the Lebanese Flower Restaurant. The flat bread and humus were yummy as usual but the meat dish we ordered kept repeating on me. We stopped at the Lebanese bakery so I could indulge in some baclava after lunch and this helped keep the lunch repeats at bay.
The most exciting part of the day happened next…The Red Bull Car Park Drifting Challenge! We had seen something being set up while we were at the Corniche in the morning and this jogged my mom’s memory and she told me that this drifting challenge would be starting at 6pm that night. And our day had worked out so well that we arrived back at the Corniche and found a suitable parking spot by 6pm. We stood just behind a fence with the contestants’ cars in front of us and the demarcated challenge area in front of them. We were there to see a demo run of the course (the video below) as well as see the first few contestants have their go. But we left shortly after the third guy had finished as it was too hot, we were so exhausted, and the challenge was taking too long. It was fun though and quite an experience!
*Day 8′s adventure to come soon…
Hugs & Kisses
Jessica Giggles
PS: I thought you may enjoy this as much as I did… The traffic lights at the Corniche have a 3D walking man when you are allowed to cross the street, along with a timer of how many seconds you have. (Apologies for the poor quality but I was trying to walk and record at the same time.)
QUICK LOOK
- 3-inch LCD screen
- 12 megapixel camera
- 720p video
- Easy video record button
- Built-in flash
- Auto turn off after 2 minutes
- Image stabilising
- Rechargeable lithium-ion batteryI do not proclaim to be a photography buff. I don’t know my aperture from my shutter speed. But I do know when a camera is easy and fun to use. And the Pen E-PL2 helped put the awe into awesome making my trip to Abu Dhabi unforgettable.
Take a look here for the full review…
We awoke earlyish on Thursday and got ourselves ready before heading down for a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. As it had been our last night staying at the hotel, we went back to our room after breakfast to pack and get our things together for the drive back to Abu Dhabi. Before we headed back to the Oman/Abu Dhabi border post though, we went to Khasab Castle.
Khasab Castle overlooks the harbour and within its low walls is a massive central tower that pre-dates the castle itself and preceded the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century. The castle was renovated in the latter half of the 17th century and was used as a strategic outpost by rulers in the following centuries.
The main entrance to the castle is on the left, and the main watchtower is on the right. The ‘holes’ seen in the watchtower are strategic down-facing, angled holes for shooting arrows or guns without being seen.
The central pic is the only door to gain entrance to the castle. Many double doors (like this one) include a smaller door (to the left of the bolt). This smaller door ensured an advantage to the castle (or home) as visitors could only enter one at a time and they needed to bend over and step over a high sill in order to enter. I really love these doors and the the intricacy of the carvings.
Once we were inside the castle I took this overview shot of the courtyard. The central tower provided a last line of defence in case the outer walls were breached.
Walkways “hug” the walls as these would be occupied by soldiers during an attack. After entering the castle and going up a steep stone staircase, the pic on the left is the walkway to the one side and the pic on the right is the walkway towards the main watchtower. And just next to the staircase is the little alcove where these clay pots were hung. I’m still not sure if the pots were used for water or gun powder.
We took the walkway towards the main watchtower. The pic on the left is of my mom on the walkway and the pic on the right is the entrance to the main watchtower.
The exhibits in the central tower and other corners of the castle were very interesting. There were old coffee pots, clothing aspects, kitchenware, letters, chests (how gorgeous is the chest below), etc.
All the windows had iron bars and wooden grills, and wooden shutters that closed from the inside with a thick crossbar.
We spent about an hour at the castle and then took one last drive through the small town before heading back to the border post.
We stopped a few times on the way. One of these stops was to take a pic of an old dhow in the sea. Can you spot the bird posing inside?
The trip back to Abu Dhabi took about 3 hours and was quite uneventful (which was good). We did stop on the side of the highway though as this group of camels just had to be “shot”. Unfortunately when I tried to get close-up shots of them, they took off.
We got home around 4pm and had some leftovers for lunch. We relaxed a bit before getting ready to go to my mom’s friend for a braai. We fetched another one of my mom’s friends and on the way, we stopped off at Charles’ resting place. My mom’s husband passed away at the end of August last year and not only did I want to pay my respects, I also wanted to be with my mom as this was the first time she had visited his resting place. I really am glad that I was able to be there with her during this difficult moment. We had to climb over the small fence in order to spend a little time at his unmarked graveside. Although it was a sad ending to our Oman trip, it was necessary and I’m sure very cathartic for my mom.
We spent the rest of the evening at the braai before calling it a night and heading home around 9:30pm.
*Day 7′s adventure to come soon…
Hugs & Kisses
Jessica Giggles
About a year ago Facebook launched its custom username feature (otherwise known as a “vanity URL”) where you could personalise your facebook.com address. Quite a few people woke up at the crack of dawn when the feature was turned on so as to stake a claim on their vanity name before anyone else did.
Want to personalise your account? Want to make it easier for friends and family to find you?
Take a look here for the full How To…
…I went to The Bioscope with Gary and his two friends who are out from the US, along with Eliza who extended the invitation to us.
The Bioscope is the only independent art house and cultural cinema in Johannesburg and celebrated it’s 1st birthday yesterday. You can enjoy local and international films as well as cult or classic films. The theatre is open 6 days a week and can seat 75 people. You should definitely click here to see the complete event listing and take a trip into town to experience it.
Now to the film… Adrian Loveland is the mastermind behind Unhinged: Surviving Joburg and it was the perfect introduction to Johannesburg for the Americans. The movie takes the form of a documentary and is a honest representation of life in Joburg. It includes trivial factoids, great humour and a soundtrack that will get your foot tapping. It left me feeling inspired and wanting to change the world! Follow the link to see the trailer. And if the trailer takes your fancy (and I know it will), you can then order the DVD online.
After the movie we went next door to PataPata restaurant. I fell in love with the decor and ambience immediately. There is cushioned bench seating on the one side of the restaurant with many plugpoints which is absolutely great when you need to take your laptop to coffee. The rest of the furniture consists of antique looking armchairs, plain wooden tables, and rectangular ottomans that have been covered in that hessian material used for packaging coffee beans. The menu is written on the space above the glass windows which has been painted in that blackboard/chalkboard paint.
Below: The benched seating. You will notice that the lampshades overhead are also covered in the hessian material.
Below: A set of beautiful armchairs. I wouldn’t mind owning a pair of these…
It was then time to order some food. I had a divine vegetable soup for mains and for dessert, malva pudding and custard. I really loved how they brought the utensils on those “traditional” metal plates. Above all, I was most impressed that for the 5 of us, the bill came to just under R500.00 – and we’d had cocktails too.
I definitely want to go The Bioscope again followed by another hearty meal at PataPata. Maybe you’ll join me?
Hugs & Kisses
Jessica Giggles
I had this dessert last night at Koi Restaurant in Rosebank when I met up with some ex work colleagues for a catch up dinner.
It is listed as “Green Tea, Strawberry and Rose Petal Panacotta” on their dessert menu and is priced at *R42.00 per portion. It held no description so I didn’t know what to expect.
My Thoughts
On first tucking into this dessert I realised how I had geared myself up for a sweet dessert based on this similar dessert I had had. It may seem difficult to comprehend, but this dessert tasted more on the savoury side of things than sweet. It’s great for someone who wants dessert but doesn’t want to feed their sweet tooth. I however was left wanting more…
Rating: 4 out of 10
Try it and let me know what you think!
Hugs & Kisses
Jessica Giggles
*The price is correct at the time of publishing
