Starbucks Giveaway

So I received a prize for a game played at a wedding reception. It was 80 ringgit worth of vouchers to be spent at Starbucks!
Pretty cool, right? It's always fun to receive a prize! But I’m watching my weight it was way too much of a blessing for me to spend on myself. After taking a girlfriend out (we used up 20 ringgit), I still had 60 ringgit worth left. The best part is, the expiry date is March 2013.

And I've decided to give it to you! You guys are amazing for reading my humble blog and for commenting which often makes me have a good laugh. You will recall I love giving out gifts occasionally on this blog. I gave away pouches to all my signed-up followers once...(click on the purple to see the blog post):

and a rainbow wooden slat doormat, a DIY project I made...


So here's the prize; 60 ringgit worth of Starbucks vouchers. All you have to do is guess what this picture is!


How much simpler can it be? I am sure there'll be many correct answers so I'll put all the names (of the readers who give correct answers) in a tin and I'll just draw one out.

1. Anybody reading this can take part, but sorry, the vouchers are only valid in Malaysia. Overseas readers can still take part but you'll have to give away your vouchers or make a trip here to use them! See, you have a year to make a trip!
2. Only one answer, please. Multiple answers (eg. it looks like a trunk or roots of a tree - that's two answers) will be disqualified.
3. Last answer to be accepted will be on 31st March 2012, midnight, Malaysian time.
4. Immediate family members of mine are not allowed to take part. That's because other competitions say that, so I'm saying it too, 'cos it makes it all sound so official, yes?
5. The winner will be notified first week of April through this blog. Please make sure you can be contacted.
6. Sorry, no answers will be accepted through facebook, email or phone responses. Leave your answer only in the comment section below.

UPDATE: You can send in three separate entries. After the first few answers I received, I thought I should help a little. Here's a clue: it is not something found indoors.

2. A second clue since no one's got it right yet! It's a body part.
3. A third clue - it's a body part of a large animal sculpture! (and look at it at various angles!)

So many clues already!!

Don't forget, closing date: 31st March 2012


Ok, I'm done.

Backsides in Botswana, Africa

backsides of crowned guinea fowls


backside of an ostrich


backside of a deer


backside of a warthog - waideminit, not sure if this is the backside...warthogs are so ugly you can't really tell their front from their back :)

(This is the last post on our adventures in Botswana in December 2011. Parts 1,2 and 3 are in the blog posts before this one.)

It was most frustrating! We were at our second game reserve and had yet to get a good close-up shot of an animal. Animals we'd sighted up until then were deer, rams, antelopes, impalas, ostriches, tortoises, warthogs, gibbons, foxes, zebras, kudus, wildebeests and even a hare. But our photos turned out pathetic because of cheapo cameras (mine)and amateur photographers (me). And, the animals would look up, glare at us, then dart off before we could get a clear enough shot of them. Most of the time, we'd get their backsides only. Hence the title for this post.

Look at these other pathetic shots.....

Can you even see the zebra?


Here's a picture of two hippos...
.....way over at the other end of that lake. With binoculars, you could see two mounds in the water. How do we know for sure? Our game warden made this ke.ray.zee hippo call right across the water and
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they answered!! It was crazy LOUD, I can't even describe it - a snort, grunt, growl all rolled into one! Man, before this, I didn't even know hippos made sounds of any kind. Did you?

One of the game reserves we went to...

We went in trucks like this one...
Some of our friends from the above pic (who went in the truck before our turn) came back with exciting news about having seen a giraffe! What! You guys saw a giraffe?!

Then it was our turn.....how we strained and trained and sprained our eyes to look for a giraffe.....ho hummmm....

a humongous termite mound, taller than me...


In the end, even a dung beetle looked exciting to us...
(actually, dung beetles really are fascinating. Did you know they roll that ball of dung backwards all the way to their destination? seriously, go read about them....and would you believe the whole truck stops to let the dung beetle cross the road?)

And then....and THEN!! All of a sudden, when we didn't expect it at all! We were stumped, the truck came to a very very very. quiet. halt.
and all of us were speechless, speechless I'm telling you! cameras slowly,easy-does-it, raised and poised..


OH MAN! OH MANNNN!!! BAHNNNA!! IJOH!!! ITHA-HA-NAE-LAE!!
This was the one!!!! This was the shot. I. me. yours truly. took!!!

....straight off a page from the souvenir calendar I bought at the end of our drive. And I quickly showed it to our friends (in the truck that had gone before us and were waiting for our return). And they went, "WHAAAT? You saw a RHINO?!"
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HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!

GOTCHA!!

lalallala..laaa la....

I was so disappointed with not having seen a giraffe, that we planned for yet a third trip on another day to an even further game reserve, almost 3 hours away.

Even at that game reserve (only my family got to go in, plus our chaperone), we saw pretty much the same animals although the rams with their amazing long and very curly horns (sometimes used as shofars) were something awesome...

But after a good two and a half hours of driving, hope diminishing....we see on our trail...

hoof prints! hoof prints! but what animal's?

They were too big to be a deer's...could it be? could it be? We drive following those prints for what seemed like a good 3 kilometers....all the while hoping...

and then we see it in the distance....hold your heart,(mine was in my throat) I'm tellin' ya!

can you see it? can you see it? look closely! look.....

AAAAAAAAARGHHHKKKKK!!! YES! IT IS! IT IS! IT'S MY GIRAFFE!
Our truck drives slowly slowly...we send Tammy out ahead on foot with the camera, to follow the trail but the poor girl had to walk so far before she caught up with it. All the while she was watching the giraffe watching her watch it....At one point ahead of us (we were slowly slowly driving behind her) Tammy looked so close to it that our chaperone asked, "what, is she thinking she gonna hug it or what?" Man, by the time we got to as close to it as possible and we got off the truck, I'd just about taken a hundred photos of that poor lone and lost-looking giraffe...

I mean, seriously, how majestic she looks with that long, slender neck....(oh, waideminit, I donno if she was a she and didn't think to check...sorry...I will do so next time)


Oh, I love you, gorgeous, gorgeous giraffe....oh, to be able to hug that neck...


I mean, seriously, how much closer can you get than this?!

Oh, you terribly beautiful creature, so beautiful are you, an absolute work of art by God Himself, I could just cry....I thought of all those extinct dinosaurs....

Look at how it moves....



Here ends my account of our Botswana trip. It may not be your kind of holiday but it sure was mine...spent with loved ones, learning their culture, language, laughing with them, a little sight-seeing. And when I think of that giraffe, it still makes me wanna dance like the Africans...(umm...no, that's not me)




I love your comments and reply every one of them.

Food in Botswana

(This is Part 3 of my account of our trip to Botswana, Africa - you can read Part 1 and 2 in my previous posts)

So it's time for a confession: I did not take enough photos while in Botswana. This is all I have on the food. How I regret it!

Soghum (like a thick paste of oatmeal) with a vegetable puree. Soghum is a staple in Botswana.

At a Nando's restaurant which is famous for its chicken grilled with various seasonings. Did you know Nando's originated from Africa? This is what Google says:

"Nando's is a casual dining experience originating from the Mozambiquan Portuguese community in South Africa with a Portuguese/Mozambican theme."

Peaches. Would you believe they even had grapes over there, with such a hot climate?
We also had fat cakes - (sorry, no picture) they are actually balls of dough made up of flour, salt, and sugar, deep fried in oil. They tasted nice but the name itself put me off each time I ate one. I just felt fat while eating them. Maybe if someone had called them slim cakes, what a different story that would be. Just goes to show how important a name is, doesn't it?



Worms (already cooked) which is favoured by some. My husband brought some back and enjoyed distributing and daring others to eat these. Someone said it tastes like ikan bilis (anchovies) but with a grainy texture. I'll just take their word for it. Suddenly, the thanksgiving prayer some people say before meals (as a joke) takes on a literal meaning: "Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub"!

And I couldn't resist taking a video of Esther making palichee - this is another staple in Botswana that is eaten with other dishes like vegetables or meat. It comes in a powder form. Here are two halves of my amateur attempt at taking videos. In the first one, I had mistakenly thought Esther was about to make soghum, but she was actually making palichee. Man, this takes brute strength! And she made this almost every day.





We also had seswa, which is beef boiled for many hours over a wood fire, then pounded to shreds. It tastes much like corned beef. Boago's Dad made us a whole lot to take back and we enjoyed eating it for days after our return.

And now for a bit of craziness. The family got the neighbour's permission to take us for a donkey ride! See how the donkeys were a little disorientated in the beginning until Tammy stood up. I think it helped balance things up.


On coming back after a large round around the neighbour's compound, the donkeys could actually speed and Tammy's holding on for dear life. Hilarious! You can hear the neighbourhood kids screaming in excitement in the background at these crazy foreigners!

Now what have these two videos have to do with Food in Botswana (the title of this post), you ask?



psst. Did you know some Africans actually eat donkey meat?

I know right?

Altogether now......

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

sob.

Botswana - Taking It All In.

This is Part 2 of our trip to Botswana in December 2011. Part 1 is in the post before this.


It was fun to take it all in, truly fascinating and interesting....

A mud hut - apparently this type of roof is now expensive to make. Inside it is cool (cool, as in temperature. Well, cool as in awesome, too!) In the winter, around May - July, it is warm.


Wild flowers bloom nonchalantly here and there making a pretty picture in the midst of savannah scrub, Botswana's natural vegetation (geez, I'm beginning to sound like something on National Geographic).





Wha_?? Yes, THE Livingstone Memorial. Can you believe this? (However, I am not sure if this is the only memorial set up for Dr David Livingstone.)
"Britain wanted the body to give it a proper ceremony, but the tribe would not give his body to them. Finally they relented, but cut the heart out and put a note on the body that said, "You can have his body, but his heart belongs in Africa!" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Livingstone#Death
We only passed by this spot but had we lingered here, I would have shed tears just at the thought of one person's sacrifice for a nation. And yes, we should take our hat off, Paul!


It seems like African guys usually have their hair cropped very short, while the ladies, even young girls, seem to place a lot of emphasis on their hair. In the town, you could find make-shift hairdressing spots with just chairs and tools set up under trees. There, several hairdressers will be busily braiding away!

Here's a family friend's young daughter who had hers done at home...this is art, I'm tellin' ya!

















































BFFs - my husband Paul, and Boago's father, Mr Matshuba - don't they look like brothers separated when young, discovering each other, and finally being reconciled across the continents! (I know, I have quite an imagination.) They are togged up like this for Christmas service in church. (Africans seem to dress up much more formally than we Malaysians do when attending church, and all the more at Christmas. So we followed suit. Geddit, geddit, followed suit? Sometimes I'm so funny I actually make myself laugh!)



We Malaysians are such a multi-racial bunch, our costumes are now such a (con-)fusion of everything. My daughter goes Chinese while I go Indian because we are both and neither at the same time.



The Matshubas. Esther (orange)is in a traditional African costume. I'm blinded by those flashin' teeth!

The stage backdrop of the church we attended (took about an hour to arrive in the town church) on Christmas day. These are pieces of cloth pulled taut and tied down.



Pizza joint in town for Christmas lunch!



Here are some other photos that I thought might interest you....







What did we eat in Botswana?

Look out for the next post!

If you have enjoyed this account of our trip, do write comments at the bottom of this blog post. I'd love to know what you think, and I do try to answer every one of them! (It takes me forever to upload photos/videos by the way.) Several of you have mentioned having problems getting your comments through, in which case, you can send me your comment through facebook or email and I will copy it here.

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