Hello reader,

Oh why can’t I remember what happened on Friday? Did we go out drinking or something? Haha! I’m kidding! I don’t remember much but I remember enough… I think.

On Friday nothing much happened. Early in the morning we had yoga (my suggestion) as a group work-out and wow, it was so challenging. Marisa really pushes people to their limits in terms of exercise. I'm pretty sure I almost tore something because I'm not very flexible. Since tomorrow would be the finals, we practiced our talents we just hung out talking and joking in the common room. We pretty much did anything and there was no pressure whatsoever. Later that afternoon we were to have individual interviews. We weren’t going to be interviewed on stage due to time constraints, Narda had said. Instead we were going to be interviewed right there in the hostel, with Marisa and Adriaan as the judges.

In the afternoon we assembled in the foyer waiting for Adriaan. The other organizers from Joburg came to visit, bringing us platters of food, and Gert braaied (barbequed) some meat for us with the help of one kind man who had the cutest kids. But we weren’t to touch the food until we were done with the interviews. L It was a loooong wait. Adriaan couldn’t find the place and Chanel joked that I should be Superman and fly him here. Coleen joked that because he was body builder, he was too big for me to lift and I’d be flying up and down. It was rather funny, you had to be there! At the end he didn’t pitch at all and Narda took over his judging duties.

The only photo I took on Friday (I focused on shooting a video instead). That's Chanika and Chanel in the back.

We waited to be called and interviewed and I was the second last to be interviewed (meaning my food was cold by the time I was done) and I wasn’t nervous at all. I didn’t think I had a reason to be nervous as I was already comfortable with Narda and Marisa. I answered the questions with ease and I may even have rambled (sorry!)

Later after eating we hung around and I attempted (and failed) to take a nap. When night fell we swapped stories with each other. Narda told us a story about how some people broke into her house and there was a part where she said that one of the policemen had a really large belly that she bet he couldn’t see his penis. I laughed so hard at that and this is also one of those ‘you had to be there!’ stories haha! Chanel, Coleen and I talked boobs and it was a really hilarious conversation.

At night some of us got busy preparing for the next day. I exfoliated my legs with a yummy smelling sugar scrub and slathered on a mud mask on my face (which Alexis called poop). I helped Chanel with her hair and she has the most beautiful, fluffy curly hair but she doesn’t like it, preferring to straighten it instead, which is time consuming. We then indulged in our nightly ritual of tea and crackers (the rusks ran out L ) in the common room. There was a lot of laughter and just good vibes. Later that night a few of us; Christi, Chanel, Elzane and I practiced our walks till late. I was the last to leave the rehearsal room and I was practicing in my PJs!

I went to sleep knowing that I was going to miss the girls terribly, especially the above mentioned nightly ritual! It was my last night at the hostel with the girls  and the whole entire week with them was beautiful; it was a special kind of sistahood. I mean we could talk about boobs and other usually socially taboo subjects like we were talking about the weather! Spending time with them was amazing.

Stay tuned for The Big Day’s Diary!

‘Til Next Time

-Bella

Pageant diary- Thursday, 9th October

Hello reader,

Whoo whoo! Thursday! Photoshoot day…and new dress day! We woke up fairly early today, got ready; I didn’t think it was necessary for me to flop at doing my own make-up since there’d be people doing our make-up. I didn’t want raccoon ‘smokey eyes’ for my photoshoot!

And thus we set off, we went to some kind shopping centre (I didn’t really notice since I napped in the bus on the way there, it was hot, and I was really tired) then we were told that those who didn’t have dresses should get off the bus. We saw passing planes overhead, the airport wasn’t very far away so when planes passed, there were so close to the ground that you could clearly see the underside. We went into a bridal store, Brides and Co. That place was unreal. It had the most beautiful dresses I’ve ever seen and I got so excited, we were told that we were free to look around and try on any dresses we liked. Let me repeat that…any dresses. Whoop! The girls and I had a look around; I saw some dresses that I was in love with but unfortunately most were a little big for me. Walking around to the back of the store I saw a lovely peach coloured dress and I decided to try on. Look, I have to tell you about the fitting rooms. *wipes tear* Wait, I don’t think any words I can think of will adequately describe how awesome they were. I think the bridal stores do this on purpose too. You feel so calm and you could just try on dresses all day. Well anyway, the mirrors were outside the doors so you had to go out to have a look at the dresses on you. I went out to have my dress zipped up and right there and then…I fell in love with that dress. It looks really great on me. Usually I tend to avoid strapless dresses because of the boob situation but that one made my boobs look awesome and offered lovely support even without a bra. I needed that dress. After consultations with Marisa and the other organisors, I was told the dress was fine. Let me tell you, I was very happy.

After choosing my dress I waited while the other girls tried on their dresses. You know how bridal stores are…I started envisioning myself trying on my wedding dress, with my maid of honour offering suggestions and all that. My mind really wandered. Brides and Co was so generous that they offered to sponsor dresses (and those were really expensive dresses) to the other girls who already had their dresses from the other store, I was amazed at their generosity. After taking photos with the store assistants and manager, we set off to one of the organisors house were we had lunch and jokes and swapped stories with each other. It was a good time. Soon after that we had to have our nails and make-up done. While half of the girls were busy with their make-up (It seemed like I was the only one who didn’t know a thing about make-up), the other half –including me- were ferried off to a sweet dainty salon where I had my nails shaped a bit and painted the colour of my choice.

Charcoal grey nail polish!

Time was quickly running out, the sun was about to set and I hadn’t done my make-up yet! I had stupidly got off the bus without my make-up bag, meaning I had to wait for it to come back. When the bus finally came back with the rest of the group, it was such chaos as people scrambled to have their nails done (there was only one nail technician for twelve of us!) and sweet Elrie did my make-up for me. She did it the way I liked; as close to natural as possible. When I went in to get dressed in my dress, I was told that my make-up was barely visible. I had to go to Marisa, who took a make-up course (seriously, is there anything the girl cannot do!? She knows make-up, teaches pilates and is a ballerina…). When I was done the sign language interpreter helped me to wrap my hair in a bun and into our dresses we got and into the bus and away we went.

Me at the salon, before leaving for the photoshoot

Christi and I...I swear I'm not short!

The photoshoot took place on a golf course and it was a very beautiful day. I tried to take pictures and a video but I had a really crappy camera and the battery kept dying so I couldn’t take that many photos. Not to worry though, that was the point of the shoot; professional photos. We each took turns to pose individually on a beautiful stone bridge as the sun lowered in the horizon and a breeze flew in, making the fabric of our dresses billow boldly in the wind. I’m so excited to see the photos. I’m terrible at smiling widely and posing like a beauty queen but tell me to pose like a model and I’m in my element. After the bridge photos we were told to take our pick of any location around the golf course to pose near. I chose to pose under a curtain of hanging leaves (don’t worry, I checked for tree snakes beforehand) and the stone bridge yet again. When my photos were done and dusted I waited with the other girls, chatting and joking around as always. I worried the sun would set before the photos were done as it was getting dark. Not to worry though, we all had ourselves photographed but then rain began to fall. We made a mad dash to the bus which was a little bit of an overreaction because it was only drizzling. But still, we had on very expensive dresses and we had explicit instructions to take good care of them.

All of us minus Alexis (where was she!?). I swear I'm NOT short, I was grouped between two of the tallest girls :P

From left: Chanel, Amy, Elrie, Christi, Megan, Xolisile, Beyonce, Beauty, Elzane, Coleen and Chanika.

 After we were done with the shoot we changed out of the dresses, put them within their protective… *makes describing hand motions* pockets…? and we were off to dinner at…Ocean Basket! Yus! Seafood baby! All of us were pretty much tired and hungry so we were excited for food, Megan was especially excited for sushi since she really loved it. We had a really long table set especially for us and it was such a beautiful ambience that everybody was in their element. Megan had her sushi (sushi wasn’t offered for us so she said she’d pay out of her own pocket but they gave her sushi for free anyway). Xolisile was a little bit excited with her food, she ordered chocolate milkshake and seemed to forget that she had a straw in it and tilted the glass, which of course resulted in split milkshake in her crotch haha. That wasn't the last of the clumsiness, while we were eating a salad, some pieces fell off her plate and onto my lap - with dressing and everything! I wasn't even mad since I found it funny. The night was beautiful, we were served by really friendly waiters who had the biggest smiles on their faces and we were filled up and happy.After eating who all smiled for a group photo with the owner of the restaurant who looked like he belonged on the cover of GQ Magazine.

Pouting and smiling like princesses do

Candid photo!

On the way back to the hostel, it was pretty late and we were exhausted, so we all napped in the bus. We arrived, cleaned our faces (all that make-up!) and as it was already tradition, we congregated in the common room for tea and rusks/crackers. We may have practiced our ramp walking and/or talent. I don’t remember. Tiredness... or old age.

Stay tuned for Friday’s diary.

‘Til next time

-Bella

Pageant diary- Wednesday 8th October

Hello reader,

On this day I woke up at…uh, who remembers? It was probably before 8am though. Fortunately there wasn’t any group work-outs yay! I don’t exactly hate exercise, as Marisa said; she loved working out because it was a great feeling. For me working out gave me a ‘this is it, I’m dying today…right here’ feeling. My form of working out involved something enjoyable like dancing, a bit of yoga or sports. We were to go for dress fittings then have a talent show later that night.

The dress fittings were stressful, there wasn’t a dress for everyone and we needed ones that looked really good on us. Only a few girls found suitable dresses early on. The rest were either too short, too big or too small. We went to three different stores. There was one particularly nice ruffled blue cocktail dress that I really loved but alas!... The pressure was on us because time was running out and we still needed to find dresses for the photoshoot happening the next day. The last store we visited had really beautiful dresses and I was eager to riffle through the rails and find a great beautiful dress. The store owner however, told us there were only willing to sponsor us only two dresses because they cost a lot to clean. Cue disappointed looks for the few of us who hadn’t any dresses yet – I think there were five or six of us.

Upon entering the showroom, the girls and I went to the rails to pick out dresses but we were told we were not allowed to. We had to stand there obediently with our arms crossed as the people who work in the store picked out dresses for us. Luckily Narda and Gert (her husband and pageant co-founder) were able to negotiate dresses for all of us.  My dress, which was a red ball gown (you know, those you wear a mesh ‘hula hoop’ skirt underneath?) was rather a bit short on me. According to Marisa, who acted as the consultant as well, the evening dresses were supposed to reach the floor in length. I also expressed concern that my cocktail dress –the one I was planning to wear on Saturday- was already red; I suggested that I could wear the red dress and then get the blue cocktail dress from the first store to wear as my cocktail dress. I am not sure, but I think I noticed one or two side-eyes. Oh well, I tried. About the dresses, we had no choice really, and I could see the other girls weren’t really happy with their dresses; they were fine at the most, not great, like we wanted them to be. Beggars couldn’t really be choosers.

We took the dresses, said thanks to the store owner because even if we weren’t really happy with the dresses, we were quite appreciative of the fact that we at least had dresses. Soon after we were due for the talent show at the same venue that the final event was going to be held. We were starving so we ordered some McDonald’s and ate quickly in the car. I don’t really understand what went on, perhaps I was way too tired but we arrived at a church building (which is the part I didn’t understand) and waited for further instructions. Adriaan (the MC, in case you’ve forgotten) arrived and suggested that it was better for us to have the talent show on Saturday morning and that finding dresses should be a priority. No worries, this would give us more time to practice our routines.

Getting back into the bus, we were notified that those of us who didn’t find a dress or were unhappy with their dresses could have a chance to look again because we had another sponsor! Yay *airpunch* What happened after that is a blur, I don’t remember where we went but we probably went straight back to the hostel. Back at the hostel I goofed around with Chanel, Christi, Chanika and Coleen (hold on a dang minute! How am I only noticing that the four friends’ names all start with a ‘C’!?) and we all just generally had a good time. Ate supper, had a bit of talent practice then it was oooff to bed. *yawn* you could really detect my tiredness right here.

Chanel and I before leaving for dress fittings!

Chanel holding the fluffiest puppy ever from the first fitting

Stay tuned for Thursday’s diary.

‘Til next time

-Bella

Pageant diary- Tuesday 7th October

Hello reader,

Tuesday we woke up fairly early. 6am is fairly early, right? Well, at 6am it was 4am in London so THAT is fairly early. We had work out boot camp with Marisa as our personal trainer and goodness gracious, she really worked us hard. Anyway we had a fun outing planned. We had breakfast in the common room and I chatted with some of the girls. Hilarious Chanel, who fittingly won the Miss Personality title last year asked why I was so shy –I said that I liked observing and I was observing them communicate in sign language as I wanted to learn and she said she’ll teach me-  then stated that she saw that I crowned Miss Personality in 2011. We had the personality title in common haha! I had begun to warm up to the rest of the girls and began to actively use sign-language as I learned more of it. After breakfast it was off to the zoo!

Selfie outside the zoo with Alexis (I obviously need more selfie taking practice

Arriving at the zoo, I was quite excited as I really love animals. We got off the bus and posed for a couple of photos. We entered the Lory Park Zoo and immediately I was in my element. Upon entering we were greeted by tall enclosures of birds that were so shy that they flew away when we approached the cages. How anti-social. But not to worry; we saw a meerkat enclosure opposite the entrance bird cages and they are such really cute little things that I really wanted to take one home with me. One was standing attentively on its hind legs and only turned to glance uninterestingly at us before staring out at…nothing. Well, I couldn’t see anything interesting that had her captivated (it was pregnant).

Meerkat looking away

Meerkat looking at me

After the meerkats there was a koi pond full of brightly coloured fish. A lot of us were so captivated by the sights before us but we were told to hurry up and we obliged, heads craning to take fleeting glances at the various animals and birds we passed. We arrived at a dining area and there was a cage with a fervent Cockatoo. I shouted “hello” at and to my surprise, it said “hello” back. I had to stop and say “hello” again because I wasn’t sure I had hear right. Again it replied. I was delighted! The bird could talk greet! I mentioned to the other girls that the bird said “hello” and those who could hear it were delighted as well. Soon after we were sitting and waiting for further instructions. We were told to keep together and not wander off but after a while Alexis and I grew restless and went to look at the parrots’, iguana, jaguar and rabbit enclosures nearby until we were called back. We ordered food for lunch then took a couple of photos. After this we were asked to choose one animal we would like to pet. *Cue Andy Dwyer like over-excitement from me* It was sad that we were only to choose one animal out of a few select choices, but I wasn’t sad any longer because we were told we could meet two animals each. Yus! I chose to meet the jaguars and an owl. 

This little friendly and cute pookie-poo offered us its head to scratch

The girls doing what they were doing here

Amy, Elrie and Xolisile. "Look at these chompers!" Predators.

We set off to meet some animals with the first stop being the snow lion cub’s enclosure. I watched from outside the fence as those who choice to meet them took photos. The cubs’ enclosure was right near the baby hyena’s enclosure –on which fence I was leaning on- and Narda commented that they had really long penises which cracked me up! So many girls had chosen to touch the cubs and it took a really long time. I wandered back to the talking parrot and said a hello. It said “hello” back then I said hello back again and then…it stopped talking to me. It gave me a look that said, ‘oh boy, this girl…’ then it pretended to be asleep. Smh, how rude. After the cubs it was the hyenas then we off to the baby jaguar’s enclosure! Before this, we had only seen one jaguar but I was pleasantly surprised to see there were three in total, and two had come out from wherever they were hiding. There were 2 ink black jaguars and one spotted one. Three of us at a time entered the enclosure and I had all run across my lap and they were quite enamored with my hair but they weren’t even allowed to come near it so I had to gently push their paws away. Their paws! They were huge! The better to slap prey with, I bet. The jaguars were so cute and fluffy and aww inducing. I wanted to take at least one home with me (to be quite honest, I wanted to take a lot of those animals home!) 

*Photos were done and the next group came in. Soon after, we were called for lunch inside the lapa (dining area) and after eating one of the zoo helpers entered with a snake and said those who wanted to meet a snake should come out. I had not chosen a snake as I already had the experience of wearing a python around my neck before. 

Me with a python in 2011. Photo courtesy of Eventpho Photography

I went outside to watch some of the girls, the organisers and Marisa get that experience. Beauty, who has a fear of snakes, was brave enough to try and hold one but she freaked out before she could properly hold it and ran away. No amount of coaxing and it-doesn’t-bites were enough to have her hold it again. 

Me with my best friend ever the owl.

 

Don't be fooled by those eyes people. Sweetest bird I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.

Soon after that they brought out an owl and oh.my.gosh. *sobs at the memory* The owl was the cutest little bird I’ve ever seen despite its red menacing eyes and it was so tame. The keeper had it on her finger and she put it on those who wanted to meet it on their shoulder and it obliged and photos were taken. I patiently waited my turn and when it was my turn it was placed on my shoulder and I had to force myself to not make a run for it with it haha! I touched it and it affectionately nibbled my fingers aww! When it was another person’s turn, the owl wouldn’t sit and face the front and the keeper tried to make it face the camera and it probably got a little agitated because it flew away and landed on Megan’s shoulder who said, “Wow, it likes me.” Haha.

Chanel and I thinking about how we'll make an escape with the cub.

How cute!?

 After that the entire group went back into the lion cubs’ enclosure for a group photo (and I got to stroke the cubs yay!) then after we came out we met the MC for the Saturday final and wow I was amazed at how big he was. He’s a body builder and model people! And he was so nice! We took yet another group picture with him and we were allowed to wander off to have a look at the rest of the animals. We saw some fully grown lions (one angrily leaped at the fence when we approached and said hi. Goodness gracious, some of the animals are unbelievably rude. Tsk tsk), leopards and Bengal tigers. I approached one exquisite Bengal tiger, saying something along the lines of, “Richard Parker! How nice to meet you here. Won’t you smile for the camera? You were in that movie, Life of Pi right?” and I may or may have not asked for its autograph. It wasn’t interested, judging by it looking away and if tigers could roll their eyes in annoyance…

We saw a couple more animals and Alexis fed a banana to two unfriendly but greedy monkeys. Since we were near the exit/entrance we went back to the meerkat enclosure, waiting for the rest of the company to catch up and to have the doors opened for us. The pregnant meerkat was still on standing upright, gazing at air and every time I called out to it, it would give me a glance then go back to gazing at whatever it was gazing at again. Its fellow companions were in the dirt, digging a hole. I talked to the girls as we waited then went back to the meerkats, showing them an apple to get their attention and my, how they scampered up to me! I didn’t give them the apple though, as I didn’t have permission to do but not to worry, they were soon fed. They were fed a plate of what looks like chicken heads and guts with a few apple chunks mixed in…yikes! I changed my mind about wanting to own a meerkat.

"Who wants a banana!?"

Soon we were out the gate, in the bus and on the way back to the hostel. We all ate supper in the common room, practiced our talent with Marisa then had a little tea –well, others had coffee- with rusks and then it was time to sleep. I fell asleep thinking about the little lovely owl.

Thanks to the Lory Park zoo for sponsoring us with a lovely afternoon!

Stay tuned for Wednesday’s diary.

‘Til next time

-Bella

*I do not have the official photos at this time as we were told to not take photos as we had an official photographer but as soon as they are released, I will take update the posts with them.

Pageant diary Monday- 6th October

Hello reader,

I woke up a little late by non-holiday weekday standards. I had planned on waking up at 8am but since I’m a light sleeper, I was woken up a little after 7am by some of the girls moving around, getting themselves ready for the day. Why so early girls!? I don’t quite remember what I was dreaming about but it may have been some lottery numbers!  Oh well…

After breakfast Narda took us for a walk/tour around the school (Transoranje School for the Deaf) and it was so sweltering hot that I was wondering where the pool was so we could go for a swim but we didn’t see a pool. The grounds were so huge that we didn’t tour all of them. Later on we did an impromptu photoshoot on the jungle gym right near the hostel/dorms. Elrie kept asking me if I was okay because I was way too quiet haha! I relaxed a bit as the finalists and I stuck ridiculous poses and showed off our chompers to the cameras. [Side note: have you ever thought about how weird smiling is? ‘Look at these teeth that I use to crush food with.’ Okay I’m being ridiculous, ignore that]. Next we took a photo with a powerful looking statue.

There is little tiny me in the very back. I am not THAT tiny though.

Why am I always in the back!?

 After the photoshoot we went back inside and relaxed and communicated a bit. We even practiced our talents as the talent show was to be held on Wednesday and I messed around and did a split that I was stuck in. One of the girls had to help me up. 

 

Later in the evening we were told to don our cocktail dresses as we were going out for supper. We were excited, we prettied ourselves up and that saw my first attempt at putting on make-up by myself. I was going for the ‘natural smoky eye make-up’. It was okay, not great but I was going to wear my glasses anyway. We went outside into the evening air and took a bunch of photos while waiting for the mini-bus to come and pick us up. The bus came after a while and we were off.

From left: Xolisile, Christi, Elzane, Megan, Me, Elrie, Coleen, Chanel, Alexis, Chanika, Amy and Beauty.

Mega, Amy and Alexis striking a pose

Me trying to strike a pose

Coleen looking at Christi, Chanika and Chanel being goofs...and mentally judging them

Narda showing us how she does it

Coleen, Chanika and Christi

The journey was long. The other girls echoed this sentiment too (I didn’t talk much even then but I was starting to bond with them!), and night fell. We arrived at a mall and disembarked. I noticed that the mall was in another city but I understood since the organisers only got sponsors in one city and they couldn’t find a place for us to sleep in the same city so unfortunately we had to bear the long journeys to and from the two cities. I wasn’t complaining though, it gave us time for us to nap a bit in the bus haha.

It took a while for us to find the restaurant we were supposed to be at. We were a bit lost and people’s eyes were on us. I’d also look if a group of beautiful girls in pretty dresses and heels were walking past me. Heels. It was a bit challenging to walk the stretch of the mall in them but luckily we were given directions and soon found ourselves at a pizza place. Yay pizza! We ordered our pizzas and when they came we passed them around, sharing. We talked more with each other and goofed around. It was so fun! While eating we took turns posing for individual photos outside the restaurant and after we were done eating we all posed for more photos outside with backpacks we received from another sponsor (I had to tuck in my stomach a tad because of all the pizza!). Thanks Panarottis for the pizza and thanks DCD Defence for the backpacks! 

Me being camera shy...

Accidental pizza photo- yum

Christi and Coleen trying on my glasses.

We set off yet again but this time we didn’t walk the entire stretch of the mall, we went out an exit that was so close to the restaurant, and then it was off to the hostel. Yes, I napped in the bus. I think we all did.

Upon arrival we got out of our dresses and heels and some of us congregated into the common room for some tea then it was off to bed.

Stay tuned for Tuesday’s diary.

P.S I now realise that those are a whole lotta photos!

‘Til next time

-Bella