Spending Time With Old & New Friends

I'm very tired. No, I haven't been working hard over the weekend; just did a lot of socialising. On Saturday I volunteered to plant flowers on the pavement at a busy intersection in my suburb( as mentioned in a previous post.)

I dragged my friend Neo2, who was visiting me for a couple of days, to the event and she took the pictures.









Oftner, a restaurant based at the corner of Queen and Langermann,where we were planting flowers, offered to donate R5 from volunteers breakfast bill to the "I love Kensington" campaign, so of course that's where we ate. And we did manage to make a new friend, who lives near my house. We're planning to go hiking together time and weather and life permitting.

















The food was good, the prices very reasonable, so I'm happy to go back, maybe when I want to work outside the house, or to take friends. I wished I could eat their bakery goods - they looked so delicious. Unfortunately, I'm still on the no-wheat health plan:-(

View the rest of my planting album on Facebook.

Watch the event video.




Neo2 and I spent the rest of the day with Neo1, who we've also been friends with her since our teens. Neo2 made lots of beads while we chatted in my kitchen.















She designs fashion accessories, and is going to look into placing her stuff with vendors in Johannesburg.

She's also going to take a stall at a market that some people from the "I Love Kensington" campaign are planning to host on the 30 May.

Being a blogger of course, I couldn't help but make Neo1 try the finished products and took pictures using my cellphone.


I'm also going to help her set up a small web site/blog in return for an endless supply of accessories and sewing services. I've already given her some material to get started on my stuff:-).

Anyhoo, my basic plan is to use Neo2's web site/blog as my marketing tool to small business owners so I can get some practice developing profitable transactional web sites.

I also worked with Neo1 to develop a framework for her online business. I am looking forward to the challenge - it will be the first time I develop a site for a biz owner who actually plans to make money out of it through advertising, services and consulting, not as a marketing tool or as a social development tool.

Check out the Facebook album of some of the pics I took.

The beads are for sale, so email Neo2 at lolankiki@gmail.com if you like her stuff and want to order something. Prices range from R65 - R85, excluding postage.

Sunday we had tea with Suni, an old friend of Neo2 from high school. The two of them actually reconnected through this blog and the tea was their first meeting in years. Suni was working in the US, Googled Neo2, came across my blog, contacted me ( luckily I still remembered mention of her) so I forwarded cellphone numbers and email addresses.

On Tuesday I had tea Tamara, she who blogs at Doodles of a journo. It was so nice to finally put a face to a name and I really enjoyed her company.

And Tamara, on our discussion re Facebook, check out how my friend Ilva Pieterse is using her Facebook business page to showcase her writing work. Also check out Freelance Writing Jobs.

The site publishes a lot of useful info for new freelancers ( both part-time and fulltime within a wide range of experience). They also have a job board, though most of the work on offer is either for American audiences only, or pays below your scale.

And don't y'all forget that the next installment in the "Love-stories in a time of HIV & AIDS" series broadcasts on SABC1 tonight at 20h30. Today's short film is called "Big House Small House" and it's about a woman whose husband tells her he has to take a second wife due to cultural demands. The wife decides to investigate and finds out much more than she wanted to know...