Spring Highlights ’18

Spring has been absolutely beautiful for me. I went on more adventures as I had promised myself I would and my manthra this season has been, ‘Just go for it dude!’ and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. Although I was stressed half the time because of school, I am glad I am finally on holiday again. I also focused more on doing more things on my Bucket List and it has been interesting. Read all about my highlights below…

• New music from my sister

People who send you new songs are such a blessing in life, honestly! I had been casually talking to my sister about upcoming and lowkey artists who currently have my heart (such as Ari Lennox, H.E.R and Summer Walker) and what did she do? She downloaded literally all their music for me! Would your sister ever?

• Why Him?

I can’t believe I’m still laughing just by typing the title of this movie. This is not a new movie and the first time I watched it (sometime last year) I was with my friends and we were busy talking throughout. So, a couple of weeks ago, I watched it again uninterrupted and OMW I tell no lie when I say every 3 minutes I was laughing hysterically! The movie is mainly about this girl who introduces her family to her boyfriend and wow the boyfriend is out of control, hence the title of the movie “Why Him?”

• First week of October

Can I tell you that I had never experienced something like the first week of October – it was crazy! I was literally having the best day of my life every single day, I was laughing non-stop, I was getting so lucky, I received good news, my heart and soul was ridiculously happy the whole week and it is very unlikely to have back-to-back great days for so long.

• 2-hour morning hike

I had recently made new friends over a small interview we had and a few days after the interview we decided to go hiking on a Saturday morning. I had never really been on a serious hike before and that one was quite exciting and tiring of course – we did some activities during the hike and really got to know one another. Let’s not talk about how unfit-me had an aching body for the next 4 days after that.

• Went to the cinema alone

What initially seemed like a good idea turned out to be the most dramatic night I have had this whole year. It was Halloween season, right? So, a good horror movie was on show at the cinema and since I love horror movies, I decided to go and watch The Nun. I honestly did not expect it to be that scary and it was so difficult watching it alone and getting frightened alone – do you know how embarrassing and awkward that is? Haha. Also, I watched the movie at night and I had never been so terrified of driving back home like I was that night, I didn’t even check the rear mirror just in case I see the nun sitting in the backseat. Risk!

• Finally received my glasses

I had ordered these cool sunglasses 4 months prior to receiving them and honestly, I started thinking they got mixed up with someone’s order and forgot about them. I don’t know what took them so long to arrive but my excitement for them made me forget all about that. It’s those vintage gold and black glasses and have 4 lenses – 2 for the sun and 2 for when you are indoors. I literally feel so cool and untouchable whenever I have them on.

• DARK series

There’s this series I watched called Dark and it messes up with your mind I tell you. Well, it emphasises the theory that history repeats itself every 33 years – I even started doing my research on it and it freaked me out even more (wrong move). I don’t normally commit to watching movies or series but this one was worth it.

• Rode a gondola

Whenever you are in Durban please do yourself a favour and take a trip on a gondola. It is honestly the most relaxing ride you would ever take and according to our gondola driver it is actually nicer at night although you have to book early for that. One of the things I was completely fascinated about is how the gondola moved without making any sound – 1. The driver was not paddling and 2. It didn’t have a loud engine. Well apparently, it operates on a rechargeable battery hence why the trip is super silent and calming.

• Rode a rickshaw

Okay, a rickshaw is this thing that almost looks like a carriage but instead of horses dragging it, a human being does the work (woah, terrible description). In as much as it looks like a nice jumpy ride, it is not! I am not so sure if it’s just me and my sister but our minds literally convinced us that we are going to topple over and get hurt because there were moments when the driver would jump high and stay in the air for a good 5 seconds. We. Lost. Our minds. Throughout. The ride! Haha. Only to find out after the ride that there is a support wheel at the back which allowed him to fly like he did.

• Neptune camera app

Finally an app that helped me decide on a filter to use on all my pictures (oh I do pray I don’t change my mind later)! I discovered this app by chance and ever since that day all I ever do is take pictures just so I can play around with them.

• No period for a year now

Weird flex but okay! I have been on the Depo birth-control injection for a year and a month and ever since then I haven’t had my period. Nothing at all, every time is ‘go time’. Haha! Well, besides preventing pregnancy it also just cancels your period (it depends, some people have it every single day and some people don’t have it at all and with me it’s the latter) – what a bonus! I check up with my doctor ever 3-months to see if I am still healthy and she always gives me the go-ahead and I’m not gonna lie but I am really just enjoying this and have no concern what-so-ever if this might kill me or not (although it won’t really kill me). If it does, so be it!

• Went to an archery

I finally learnt how to shoot using a bow and arrow. It’s really pretty simple and very fun. I generally like shooting targets so this was like a dream come true for me. I definitely will be going back for more.

• Craziest compliment

Somehow, I attract only crazy people in my life – my family is crazy, my friends are crazy and the guys I date are crazy which then explains why I am crazy too. Haha! So, usually when I post a picture of myself on Whatsapp my friends and family tease me and lowkey compliment me but this one time a friend of mine from primary school took it to another level and sent the message below which directly translates to: You are so beautiful Mbali and you’ve always been, you deserve a man who will tell you every time that you are beautiful even when you wake up in the morning and even when you are in the toilet taking a dump you are still beautiful. Hooow do you even respond to that? Haha! See? Crazy people. I love them though.

• The ‘Why’ video

Please just watch the video below and you will understand why it earned a spot under my Highlights. This is my personal favourite video on YouTube right now – this kid genuinely does not understand whyyyy his parents won’t allow him to keep a dead fish. Omw, I laugh every time I watch this, just look at the way he is holding the fish even!

• Going through my old pictures

I generally love going through old pictures even if they are pictures from 5 months ago – they take me back to the good times and remind me what happened on that day. Flipping through my album lowkey got me emotional.

• Mom’s weekend away

Sometime during November my mother and her friends went on a “girls’ trip” to Zimbali and my word, seeing my mother so happy was the best thing ever! They really went all out with their trip and one of the things mom was looking forward to was going to the spa for a full body massage. She really had a great time and you could tell just from the way she was describing everything that happened during the vacation.

• First Airbnb experience

A couple of months ago when my friend and I planned to spend 2 days in Durban I thought it would be the perfect time for me to try out Airbnb which I had been hearing about for almost a year now and you can read about my experience on this blog postand to see what we got up to while we were in Durban check out this video.

• Rode a tandem bicycle

Listen, I am lowkey mad that people who ride tandem bikes make that look so easy! For the first 10 minutes, my friend and I were just casually knocking street light posts, cars in the parking lot and screaming, “Can y’all please get out of the way for your own safety because we do not know what we are doing” Haha, we only started getting the hang of it when we were on the Golden Mile and that is when it started getting fun.

• Bumper cars

The bumper cars at Gateway Mall left my friend and I embarrassed for looking down on them when we walked in. Lol! Just after playing a bowling game at Electric Avenue we decided to ride bumper cars and wow the fun we had there was unmatched – I think what made it more fun is the fact that it was just the both of us there, I totally did not expect to enjoy riding those cars but I did!

• The Roma Revolving restaurant

Sometime this year while casually searching things to do in Durban I found out that there is a revolving restaurant there and to be honest I was quite convinced it’s called ‘Revolving Roma restaurant’ just because having those 3 consecutive R’s sounds cool not that the restaurant really revolves. To my surprise, it actually does but you don’t realise this until you sit down – this is one of the craziest things I have experienced. After 20 minutes or so, I kept saying that I am getting dizzy but I am still not sure if it’s because the restaurant was going around in circles or because of the Martini I was having.

• Roma restaurant rooftop

When we were getting ready to leave the revolving restaurant, our waiter asked, “Aren’t you going to go to the rooftop?” as if we already knew about that! Haha! Well, obviously we wanted to go there and so we did, I won’t get much in detail about how we actually did but it was a bit sketchy for a second. So we went all the way up and when we opened the door that led to the rooftop, we were greeted with a heavy breeze and there it was – views of the city of Durban, the Durban harbour, the beach, the Moses Mabhida stadium… It was breath-taking!

• Ice-skating

I had been wanting to go ice-skating for a whole year now and I am so glad I finally did. Although I spent more time falling than actually skating, it was super cool – excuse the pun there. Ice-skating is also one of those activities that you underestimate and take lightly meanwhile it is almost close to impossible to even skate from one end of the ice rink to the other!

• Gifts from my family

Up to this day, I still wonder what made my family do what they did on that random Saturday morning. I woke up the moment I heard the sound of my sister who I wasn’t expecting to be home until later that day and while I was still in bed she said she had something for me… bear in mind, I had just woken up 5 seconds ago so I had no excitement whatsoever, I just blankly stared at her. Then she pulled out a beautiful box and I just knew it was a necklace or earrings (nothing else could fit in there) BUT it wasn’t just a necklace, IT WAS A GEMSTONE – she knew how much I love stones and crystals so that meant a lot to me. Seconds after opening it, my mother told me she also has something for me, that’s when my brother walked across the room to a suitcase and they told me to open it – A NEW PHONE and my mother mentioning that it has a 15MP camera and 32GB of space just proved that she knew the only things that mattered to me. Wait, that’s not the end of it, my brother pulled out another box similar to the one my sister gave me – ANOTHER GEM NECKLACE! My family is so fond of surprising me and making me happy and I am forever grateful to have them in my life.

• Picnic day

Finally a perfect day for a picnic! Our picnic made me realise that family picnics are actually underrated hey, it is such a beautiful thing to have and after eating, we randomly just started having a full-on photoshoot and it was absolutely fun.

• Netflix and chill

A couple of weeks back, my sister added all of us on her Netflix account – she is the best person on earth I swear! Now I understand the Netflix hype and I am so committed to this series called, Grace and Frankie – it is about these 2 women who are kind of forced to get along because they have no one else now since their husbands left them for each other! Haha, it is like the funniest thing on Netflix right now.

That’s it for now, quite a lot happened again this season and I am proud of myself for just choosing to ‘go for it’ this season – whatever I wanted to do, I made it happen and I think that is the kind of mentality we should all have to live in the moment. I am so excited for Summer and ready for all the adventures to come!