Tag: trying new things

My First Solo Comedy Show

IMG_20190521_190616No, no I’m not a comedian! I decided to test my confidence and go to a comedy show on my own, and to top off the riskiness of this move, the show was titled “Meneer Sex en Mevrou Kopseer” (Mr. Sex and Mrs. Headache).

I saw the poster for this show over a few weeks and considered going to it. Finally on the day of the show I found myself with nothing else to do as my mom and sister were up in Cape Town.

I phone the theatre up to enquire if they still had tickets available, they were sold out – luckily they had a cancellation. I booked my ticket and asked a million questions about the bar and so forth. The person I spoke to while booking my ticket seemed really surprised that I was planning to attend the show alone. That, my dear friends and followers, should have been my first warning.

You are allowed to take your own food in, however you have to buy drinks at the venue.

I got myself some chicken mayo rolls at a local bakery, the first was sadly stale which put me off and they ended going to the car guard on the way home. Enough about food- this post focuses more on the experience!

On arriving and paying for my ticket I got led to my own table which was very nicely prepared – thank you Barkley Street Theatre! When I got there, I felt so welcome I put my stuff down at my table and proceeded to get some wine. Arriving at the bar wanting to order my glass of wine I was informed that the bar is closed during the performance, which I understand but found annoying. So I proceeded to purchase 3 drinks and have them stacked in front of me on my nice little table.

I must say I regret going as early as I did, it was the first time I went to a show at this specific venue. When I phoned to enquire about the ticket they told me that the doors open at 18:45 and the show starts at 20:00. I arrived at 19:15 and the show ended up starting at 20:30 so for more than an hour I had to remain looking entertained and not consume all 3 of my drinks instantly. Looking back, I should just have bought an entire bottle of wine instead of 3 separate drinks.

One man who came past my table, peering at my beverages asked if I was there alone and seemed absolutely shocked at the fact that I was. I remember saying “there’s nothing wrong with it!” a few times throughout the night to different people as well as when telling people I went to see the show alone. In future I would go a bit later not to have to entertain myself for such a long period of time before the actual entertainment begins.

The table behind me had two very nice ladies who asked me to take photos, in doing this I realised that it seems to be a regular crowd that goes to shows at this venue who filled the room. They all had rapport and relationship with each other, greeting each other and enquiring about the families – a real community of show enjoyers. I like the idea of becoming friends with the people who enjoy the same entertainment that you do.

So now to the actual show, the comedian – Timothy Kieswetter. The show – getting out the box you have been put in regarding your sexuality. At first I wanted to get really offended at his attire until he explained the meaning behind it. I think much of the laughter was nervous as the jokes he made seemed to be holding up a reality mirror to each and every person, making you evaluate yourself right there on the spot but also making you think even long after the show.

I personally found some of the jokes a bit crude – but only in the sense that I felt guilty about understanding the joke and even more so about how hard I laughed. At this stage I was very thankful for my own little table.

All in all it was a great, hilarious and introspective show. It touched on problems you didn’t even know you had. I don’t read much, I read my Bible and I skim over the readings for my studies (don’t worry I still get good marks) and even less do I read in Afrikaans. However Timothy Kieswetter not only got me to buy a book, he got me to buy an Afrikaans book, and more than that I am actually slowly but surely reading the book!

 

Jo’s Take Aways

  1. Have the Confidence to do the things you want to do
  2. Go see the show!!!
  3. Don’t arrive too early for a show

 

What to do when life gives you bad avos

IMG_20190518_094105Nachos for Breakfast

“The price of avos must fall” was a bit of a mock movement here in South Africa when we were dealing with Fees must Fall- avocados are really delicious but super expensive.
So you can imagine my excitement when someone decided to bless us with an entire bag of ripe avocados! I literally squealed from excitement! These avos were huge and ripe! I almost immediately cut one open and spiced it – armed with a spoon to devour this delicious treat!
I have heard tales that there exists an avocado that doesn’t taste as good as the rest. I didn’t want to believe it, I have never experienced such a thing – until this fretful night. I wished it wasn’t true but it was. The avos tasted so watered down and they were too soft- like absolute mush! My heart sunk to my feet, my excitement about this blessing bestowed upon us vanished.
It was contemplated to give away the remaining avos, I was considering trying a smaller one just to see if maybe the problem was that the avo was too large. Thankfully the same person who gave us the bag of avos had given us a salad the following evening (the person makes cooked meals for a price, my sister enjoys these cooked meals and hence we received a salad). This salad had avo pieces in, the same kind of avos, and the taste was still there but it was different somehow. I enjoyed the salad.
So I got to thinking- if you don’t eat the avo on its own with only spices, it tastes good. Finally I decided on guacamole! I love finding recipes for which I have everything in the home, not needing to buy anything extra since it’s not always on the budget.
I found a recipe on allrecipes.com.
The ingredients were as follows:
3 avos peeled and pitted
1 lime juiced
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup diced onion
3 tablespoons fresh cilantro
2 roma (plum) tomatoes
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 pinch ground cayenne pepper (optional)
I didn’t have a lime or lime juice, I however had lemon juice. Also I did not have cilantro or tomatoes. Here’s what I did, if you check out my Instagram @imjoxo you will see a recipe for Thai Green curry. as I’m not a huge fan of spicy food- I didn’t use the entire sachet of Thai Green curry paste in the the curry, so I added that into the guacamole. Also the avos were a bit too ripe and I had to throw a few out- I had two large avos left to use. I chopped the avos up and chucked them in a bowl, I diced an entire onion (it was a small one though). Added lemon juice, salt and black pepper, minced garlic and the Thai Green Curry Paste. Mixed it all together and man did it smell good.
You can’t have guacamole on its own though so the idea of nachos popped into my head! For this, however, I did have to purchase a bag of cheese Doritos- the only thing I had to purchase for the entire meal! I placed the Doritos on a plate and added some Edam cheese (my new favourite cheese) over the Doritos and melted that in the microwave for 30 seconds. I then proceeded to place the guacamole on top of the melted cheese. Most people use cream cheese for nachos but I only had cottage cheese so I googled the difference and came to conclusion that cottage cheese will do the trick.
I added some spice to the cottage cheese and placed it on top of the guacamole! It was delicious!!! Extremely spicy though but a good kind of spicy as the cottage cheese helped to “cool” the mouth down. When I got to the bottom of the plate I had to resort to using a knife and fork instead of using the chips as spoons since the chips were a bit mushy from the melted cheese – still amazing though!
That’s how you make nachos for breakfast out of bad tasting avos!
Love Jo xo
Jo’s Take Aways
1. See if you can find a way to turn something you don’t like into something you like
2. Find recipes that you have all the ingredients for at home
3. Make sure you can handle the spice