Showing posts with label Los Angeles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Los Angeles. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Creepy Photographer

Outdoors photo shoot

The rest of our time in the desert was nice and peaceful. I don't know if I was kidding about never going there again, though.

Friday, July 06, 2018

Stay Woke!

Speaking of being too tired from tasting for TaskRabbit; I had a number of recurring clients. Which was nice! They would just message me when it was time or tell me at the end of the task, when they wanted me to return. Inasmuch as I was flattered that they liked my work that much, I get bored doing the same thing. One of the things I enjoy about doing all the jobs I do, is because no two days are alike. Some clients have a tendency of

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Green Card Interview

The Green card interview was around the corner, my birthday was coming up, taxes were quickly approaching as well. Good Lord! Time for me to calm all the way down and get my zen on! I needed to be very

Tuesday, June 05, 2018

How to Use TaskRabbit

I would like to jump straight to the point, but I have to first apologize for the long absence. It's been hectic! ______
As mentioned in my previous blog, I was having issues with my employer. I really wanted to quit on account of them owing me pay, and because I just didn't love the vibe at work. I am just not one to continue with situations that are uncomfortable. Good thing, I am good with money. I can always up and leave whenever I feel like it, instead of staying because money. I wasn't able to

Sunday, April 29, 2018

Bye, Bye, Blackbird!

Hello, dear brethren! I've gotten older since the last time you heard from me, April 10th was my birthday. I can't wait to tell you all about it! In fact

Monday, January 15, 2018

A Very Shitty Situation!

Happy 2018, everybody! It's here! The year I've been waiting for all of 2017, haha! No lies! 2017 was so interesting, I'm considering writing a

Friday, August 11, 2017

Hollywood And Beverly Hills Tour

Our time in Vegas is running out, we won't be able to meet up with Tortoise. I called and let him know that. We made our way to the bus station. A little waiting and we were on the road back to The City of Angels. Calvin picked us up from Union Station. He took us to the famous Phillippe's for breakfast, downtown LA. I was too tired to care, so I waited in the car for them. We took the food home. There was so much

Sunday, July 09, 2017

Shopping Sisters

She's here! Now what? Just kidding!
This was a great period in my life, first the engagement, then shot gun wedding, now my person is in town! Talk about having the time of one's life! As my sister and I were walking to the care with me secretly wishing to bump into a celebrity or two. Why not? We are in LA after all, right? TMZ! Where you at? We'll just follow your lead!
This was her first time seeing my car in 'person', so she was excited for me. So was I!

Wednesday, July 05, 2017

Birthdays and Anniversaries

I hope those who celebrate had a nice 4th of July!
        Quick! Before today ends, I would like to make an announcement: It's my sister Puma Brook-Thomae's Birthday! Happy birthday, sis! I have sent her messages all over the technology globe because I love her so. I can't wait to call her tomorrow and ask her all about it. She's probably asleep now. Time difference. It should be 3am where she is now. I don't think she will appreciate being called at this hour for birthday details, haha!

Tuesday, August 02, 2016

Don't Let the Door Hit You

Before I kicked Rene out, he had asked to take pictures of the apartment to show his spiritual adviser. He had all the pictures he needed! Remember he had even shown me that he saved my Craig's list post? He had the camera facing me when he asked to take pictures. I could tell that he was trying to take a picture of myself to show his spiritual adviser.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

The Great Pretender

Back to real life. I still had my place to myself and was loving it. Well... I was spending more time away from my place than there. Four months into our relationship, Cavin had already asked me to move in but I was enjoying him courting me. Moving in was going to be a totally different stage to where we were. Also, when you ask for something, very specifically, as I did my apartment and get it.You want to savor it!

One day, while doing a random side job, I bumped into a guy  I had once worked with. He is from Africa. We had a mutual friend. That friend and I are no longer friends. I saw the guy once since the movie we met working on and he seemed like he was avoiding me. I thought that it was before when we met, I would joke around and his response was always, 'you're crazy!'. Maybe he didn't want to be associated with crazy people. If that's the case, good for him! Crazy people are crazy! I did say hi, but I got a feeling he was brushing me off.  That's ok. It didn't hurt my feelings. Now, here we are, more than a year later, I bumped into him again at this side job. It was late at night and pouring rain. I now have a car. When we met, neither of us were driving. We both took the train and the guy disappeared on me when the ticket police came in because he hadn't paid to get on the train. This was before I saw him again and he didn't seem interested. Back to the day of the side job; I didn't see him that evening until we were on our way out. He was sitting in front, I was one of the last people to walk in, he must have seen me but I can't say for sure.

At the end of the gig, he walked really fast when I tried to say hi. I got the same vibe I did the previous time. I caught up with him when we got to the elevator. We exchanged a few words and on our way out of the elevator, I asked him if he needed a ride. It was very late, dark and cold. No longer raining. He asked if I was driving. No, I am walking. I wanna give you a piggy back ride, smdh! His face lit up when I offered him the ride. I thought to myself, aren't you glad you talked to me now, even though your pedestrian ass was avoiding me? When we got to my car, his face lit up even more. He told me he loved my car, it's so cool. It's a solid car blah blah blah. He asked what I had been up to, why he hadn't seen me in so long. He told me how proud he was of me that I bought the car blah blah blah. I dropped him off on Wilshire where he was going to take just one bus home as opposed to buses and trains as he would've if I didn't give him a ride.

As he got off the car, He thanked me very much, asked me to take his number, so we can keep in touch. I'm sorry but I can give you a ride because I am kind and like to help when I can  but that doesn't mean just because I have a car, all of a sudden, I am good enough to be friends with you. No. I am not blind. I saw your ass avoiding me like the plague! We're still not friends, but I did my good deed for the day, we're good! Bye! This is all me in my head, of course! I took his number and told him I would call him when I got home. I never looked at that number again!

I booked a job where were were going to play spectators in a baseball game. It was a late shoot so we had to pile clothing on. We may be in Southern California but it does get cold here too sometimes!

Here we are, on set, filling in paperwork, who do I see? The ride guy! Great! Did I avoid him? Nope! What for? I did my thing, when our eyes met, I waved hello. When he saw me again, he told me I'm full of games. I asked what he meant. He told me I promised to call him and I didn't. I was like, 'oops!'

A Vuvuzela on set. Memories of Fifa World cup 2010

I saw the nice girl I once carpooled with who lives not far from my place on set and we sat next to each other. It was nice catching up. She had a lot of interesting stories. She had vacationed overseas, fell in love and someone fell in love with her at school 'for no reason' that she didn't love back, she was in love with the vacation guy.

Dummies to fill in empty spaces. Last time I worked with these was in Johannesburg

Come to think of it, a lot about that set reminded me of home.

While walking around, settling in, I noticed that the lead was none other than Terrence Owens. What? I used to watch his Reality TV show back in the day. I actually, had seen an episode he did of Celerity Wife Swap not too long before I saw him in person. I was the only one star struck! Nobody else around me knew who he was. He's an athlete turned reality TV star. I don't know him as an athlete, cos I was in Africa then and had no business watching baseball haha. 

I tried to steal a picture of T.O. but you would have to zoom in and squint to make him out

It was an ok night, we stayed on set for 7 hours.I hopped in my car and drove back home without giving anyone a ride. My friend had used her parents car, so she was fine. Had I known he was going to be there, we would have carpooled again. She followed me home until she was familiar with the area, then she sped off. That child drives fast. I'm not a grandma on the road , but I drive speed limit. boring!





Friday, April 15, 2016

Let's Make a Deal!

I tell ya, after the toilet incident , I opened all the windows and then turned on my air purifier and closed everything to make it clean the air as much as possible.

We survived!

In the midst of it all, I got an opportunity to go to Let's make a Deal, the game show hosted by Wayne Brady. I remember thinking, and when I thought this my heard skipped a bit, OMG, I could get picked and win stuff! I thought to myself, sht, now that  I know what I know about the law of attraction, it's entire up to me whether or not I can go home a winner the following day from the show. That thought made me very nervous! The thought that you can be, do, have whatever you want in life can be very scary. When you really think about it! I thought to myself that I should visualise that before going to sleep that night. It was already night time. I planned what I would wear the following day, something that would stand out. Then I thought, inasmuch as the show has a dress code, at the end of the day, it's not what I will be wearing that would get me picked but my believing that I would. Every time I thought about that, my heart would beat funny. It scared me a little!

I decided I would wear my red scrubs for my costume to the show. I quickly went to bed and, contrary to what I had planned, I decided not to think or visualise my being on the show. It was making me feel very scared and nervous and I didn't want that kind of vibe while thinking about it. I just thought about the best thing that happened that day and went to sleep. Lo and behold, I dreamt, I was on the show, got picked, was standing on stage in my red scrubs and just as I was about to pick a curtain, number one, two or three, I woke up! That made my stomach turn. OMG, was this so much in the back of my mind that I dreamt about it? You know what? At least, I dreamt I got picked. It was a good dream.

I put on my red scrubs, nice smelling perfume, I wanted to smell good for Wayne when standing next to him. I got in my car and headed to studio. We stood in line, they asked us our names and what we do for a living and took photos of us before putting us in the waiting room. People had come to play! They were wearing their best costumes. I was just focusing on breathing and being in a positive, clear mind frame. A lady I was standing behind, who was absolutely adorable, older lady, who was petite, she had a beauty pageant  dress. I paid her a compliment. I also saw a guy I had worked with before. He was so desperate to win a car. Everyone wants to win a car!

They gave us numbers and we were supposed to sit in numerical order in the holding room. The tiny lady disappeared for a second and came back with a long face. Apparently, she won like a $100 from the show a year or so ago from their quick deals and she couldn't play for the next three years or so. That left her really depressed. This lady was sure she was going to win a car that day! I felt bad for her but told her that if she is meant to win a car, she would still win it. That show isn't the only way people can get cars for free, she shouldn't give up on her dream of winning a car. She didn't car about my words, she just wanted to wallow in self pity. I didn't want to go that road with her, so I started talking to my guy friend. He was so nervous, he couldn't even hear me talk. They say there are people in the holding area who are watching how much energy we have and those are the people who decided if you will get picked or not. My friend was just throwing energy all over the show. I thought to myself, wow, ok!

People know why they are here. I know that it's good to be energetic to attract things you want into your life, however, you shouldn't be desperate, because that will only draw things into you life that will make you more and more desperate. I wasn't there to preach all that to people, I was there for my chance to win as well, so  I took a few breaths and thought about random stuff that had nothing to do with the show because the thought of the show was freaking me out. I don't know why.

They loaded us into the show, sat me somewhere and then moved me and put me next to a guy in scrubs. The guy in scrubs was a nice guy from New York, a paramedic. We talked about his vacation, and all the shows and studios he had been too. His friends are TV producers so he went to the best shows, ones that are hard to get tickets too. Lucky fish!

One of the producers, my favorite, Chris, I think is his name, he is so cute, I have a crush on him. Once, he made announcements before the show and then asked if we had any questions, I raised my hand and asked if he were single. He told me he is but plays for the other team. I know he does, he is obviously gay, but so cute. Everyone laughed, he asked if I had a brother. This was forever ago!

This episode, Chris came out and made his announcements, told us how to get picked on Let's Make a Deal and he talked about how his tucked in shirt was bothering him, he then pulled it out (that's what she said!). In the end, he asked if we had any questions, I raised my hand and asked if I could help him with that shirt. I wanted to tuck it in for him, if you know what I mean, haha. He laughed and said, 'I remember you! You asked me if I was single before! And I told you I play for the other team. Come over here, let me give you a hug!' That was a special moment for me, cos I like that guy. He dresses so cute, he always has something super expensive on, like a watch or something. Anyway, I told him; I love you! thank you for the hug! and ran back to my seat.

The show started. The paramedic and I would play along and guess what the contestants should pick and we always picked the winning box or curtain or whatever.

In between takes, Wayne goes to the back, the DJ plays music, some dance, hoping someone will notice them and pick them, some dance because the music is so fun (ME!), some sit down and talk to their friends.

Towards the end of the show, just after commercial break, Wayne says, LAST DEAL OF THE DAY! WHO WANTS TO MAKE A DEAL? Everyone goes, MMMEEEE!!! as usual! Like, who doesn't wanna make a deal? Even the lady who can't play wants to make a deal! Wayne goes, 'You! Lady in Red!' F*cking hell, you guys! I GOT PICKED! Sshhhhtttt! I tell ya, I had gum in my mouth, they don't want you to have gum in your mouth on TV, They even collect it in cups before the show, but I get away with it, because I don't chew and blow bubbles during the show. I freaked the freak out, getting picked! I screamed, swallowed my gum, and ran down those stairs towards the stage! It was the happiest moment of my life, I tell ya! Whew! My heart beats fast, just thinking about it!

Wayne: Hiiiiiii
Me: Heeeyyyyyy
Wayne: What's your name?
Me: My name is Brook! OMG, I'm so excited! Thank you!
Wayne:......looks at me
Johnathan: Ok, you have to pick one right now
Me: One what? What's going on, Wayne?
Wayne: You have to pick one!
Johnathan: Three....Two......
Me: OMG (makes the sign of the cross), Number TWO! (clearly confused as to what's going on)
Johnathan: Sorry, you ran out of time
Me: Wayne, what just happened?
Wayne: You had three seconds to pick one and you ran of time, I'm so sorry.
Me: I am so happy! You don't understand. Being picked here today, is one of the best things that's ever happened to me! Whether I win or not, I am still so very happy!
Wayne: Brook where are you from?
Me: Johannesburg
Wayne: Johannesburg, South Africa?
Me: Yes, My brother met you in Johannesburg, you were there for your comedy shows, he talked to you!
Wayne: Tell you brother I said Hi! I love South Africa, we go there a lot!
Me: Will do!
Wayne: We were joking, we haven't started yet....
Me (collapses on stage! for real!)
Wayne: I have two boxes for you, a small one and a big one, which one would you like?

During this time, I look around, look at my paramedic friend and at my guy friend who wanted to win a car, his jaw was on the ground, he was still so shocked that I got picked. I looked back at Wayne and caught a glimpse of myself on the screen. You guys, everything happens so fast when you're going through something like that. I am surprised I remember so much of it. I try to be in the moment but some moments are much bigger than us. It's moments you never ever imagine they will happen to you. Here I am, a girl from A small town, Uitenhage, who used to get teased because my family lived in a farm, standing in front of Wayne Brady on the stage of Let's Make a Deal, a CBS show, in Hollywood. Like, how did this happen? Who ever thought that that girl would have a moment like this? A moment where are the cameras on the set are focusing on her, where she is the only one on the screen because the moment is all hers? I didn't have to pay anyone for this, I didn't have to beg for it, I didn't fight for it! It was given to me. That's why we just can never give up on life because you never know when that moment will be for you. It could be right around the corner!

Me: Oooohhhh! Whew! (makes another sign of the cross!) Big box!
Wayne: (opens small box......)
....guess what was inside? a Zonk! There was a bowl of cereal in the small box. What does that mean? I WON! I picked the winning box!
They opened my box and I had all kind of goodies in there from a 60inch 3D TV, an iPad, Bluetooth headphones to a year's cable subscription.

YOU GUYS, I WON ON LET'S MAKE A DEAL!

Remember my dream, where I was standing on stage in my red scrubs? It came true!

Monday, April 04, 2016

I Made a Boo Boo!

It's still vacation time and my phone is still off. Dude is still unable to get hold of me and is sleeping I don't know where because I locked the bolt to my house. Not my problem, when you book a stay through AirBnB, you pay before the stay. He didn't. Oh well! His stuff was still at my house, so he still owed me for that because I wasn't able to let someone else stay there, plus, he had the key to my place.

Calvin took me to one of his favorite restaurants in his neighborhood. Mexican. We picked up his friend along the way. A nice guy, very talkative, good talk though, so I liked. I looked for something I had never had before on the menu and found this cool dish that comes in a pot. I had meat, I think it was beef, then there was a plate full of rice, beans, other stuff and another plate with salad. AND the friend recommended a drink he thought I would like. I tell you, it looked like I was going to have a buffet all on my own. They also had their own dishes but mine was the most elaborate.

Part of my dish. The meat pot. The red drink was mine too

The food was good but I think I got full just by looking at it. It was way too much. We asked the lady to put it in a take out container or us.
Rice and Beans...

There is always so much food around Calvin that I couldn't tell you how much weight I have put on since we met. It's a hard one, I tell ya! (That's what she said haha).

That's me in Cal's Green clothes; his favorite color

The above is the outfit Calvin wore on our trip to to the mountain. I love how, even though he's slim, some of his clothes fit me. He has all sizes in his closets. Yeah, closets, that man has a lot of clothes!


On Sunday, Calvin wanted to go to church. I didn't have any church appropriate clothing. He offered to buy me a dress.

Cute and Comfy. I also grabbed leopard print shoes while at it

I will show you the shoes when I find the picture. I wore the dress with the shoes even though the shoes didn't really go along. I didn't buy them for that outfit anyway. I bought them cos I liked them.

Found the shoe picture!

During our shopping trip, we stopped by at this cute sweets spot. We had one of just about everything. Cal bought stuff for his family, and I had Ice cream with chocolate brownie, white and dairy milk chocolate and Lord knows what else.
The green is Pistachio ice cream so good!

 It was good!


 After church, Cal's friends stopped by for a drink or ten. We ordered pizza. I am not a big pizza fan. I will eat it, especially during PMS, otherwise, meh. To entice me, Cal ordered the best pizza around. I was like, alright, I'll check it out! It came in a giant rectangular box. One of the biggest pizza boxes I have ever seen. The pizza was good too. They ordered my choice, something with lots of meat on it. Why not, right? Well, unless you're vegetarian.

Pizza so big, all of it didn't fit in the picture!

I enjoyed the pizza. Calv had also ordered anchovies on the side.Some of her friends added ranch (salad dressing) on their pizza and some or everyone but me added Parmesan powder. I was like, dang! Tough crowd! All in all, everyone enjoyed the pizza (in their own special way!)

After out week or more off, I turned on my phone and checked my messages. There were so many from Brian, my AirBnB guest. He left me voice messages, emails, and texts. Normally, he wouldn't message me at the risk of me forwarding the emails to airbnb and  them finding out that he was a crappy guest who wasn't paying on time. He would always insist we talk over the phone or in person when he was home. He was desperate. When I got home, I messaged him through airbnb and told him the reason I had turned off my phone and that he still owed me for the time that he wasn't staying there. I wasn't going to let him in until he was paid up. He made payment ASAP via credit card and also paid for the following few nights. I was completely turned off this guy. I didn't appreciate his style at all.

After the few nights Brian had paid for, he booked again and made a payment. I accepted. The following day, I got a message that the payment didn't go through. Great! I took a screen shot of the email and texted it to him. He tried to explain his way out of it. I locked my apartment that night. He knocked and knocked and knocked, I didn't open. I thought that having been locked out for a week was going to teach him an invaluable lesson. Not this dude! 

He came home in the middle of the night, around 1am. His usual time. I heard knocks on the door and the window. I didn't open at all, in fact, I turned off my phone. He finally gave up and slept outside my front door. The following morning, I opened my door and this dude is lying out there like, what in the heck! I guess he was out there using my wifi until he fell asleep. The heck? He came in, paid me in cash and apologized again. I was trying to figure out what to do with my life. I need to get rid of this guy but a few things need to fall into place first. 

When he paid that day, he also paid for the following few nights. He was good in worming his way back in by doing that. I took the money because money is money and that's why I was letting my couch out. That night, I went to sleep. In the middle of the night, I heard Brian come home. I was lucky, I went right back to sleep. Within an hour or so, there's a door on my door. The bedroom door this time. Brian never used to come into my room or even knock. He used to do his own thing, I used to do mine. I'm like, good God, what could it possibly be at this hour. I woke up and answered the door. Brian told me that he didn't want me to get mad in the morning, so he thought he'd wake me up and tell me that he blocked the toilet.

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

River Deep, Mountain High

Being back in LA, didn't mean vacation was over! We still had more time to do stuff!

Calvin took me to this coffee place in San Gabriel where they have exotic coffees. I am not a coffee person, so I had this (durian) Indonesian fruit shake. I had never heard of the fruit, so of course, I had to have that! Why waste time on something you know when you have an opportunity to try something new? The owner of the place know Calvin and knows that his adventurous nature. The owner thought that Calvin was making me order the durian shake. I was like, no! No! No, Sir! I want to try this! He told me that if I didn't like it, I couldn't return it. I told him that I didn't think I could either! While discussing this issue, I noticed that there was something boiling on the other side of the counter. It looked like eggs boiling in mud. I asked what that was all about. He told me he was boiling eggs in tea. It's a Taiwanese thing. I was like, mhhh, can I try one? Calvin got us those as well. 
Durian Shake

The eggs were great, nicely spiced, but everyone wanted to see the expression on my face after I sipped on the durian shake. I took a sip and loved it! It tasted different but not bad. I enjoyed it, actually! It smells pungent but tastes ok. I had that on our way to the mountains. Calvin took us to Mt Wilson. It's one of if not the tallest mountain in the San Gabriel Valley. The idea was to watch the sun set from up there but we were a tad late for that. the sun set on our way there, which we still enjoyed, nonetheless. I drove, the drive up the mountain was absolutely insane! It was getting dark, the roads are narrow. We were driving up the mountain, literally, so that was another factor but I enjoyed it. How often do you get to drive in a scary road like that? 

Calvin was nervous for me, I could tell he wasn't breathing right. I was like, boo, don't worry, calm down! Enjoy the ride! There were rest stops along the way and spots that looked like bus stops where you pull over if someone driving faster came along. 

When we got to the top, we got off and enjoyed the view.

View of LA from Mt Wilson

It was all so surreal! We may have posed for a couple of pictures...
Mt Wilson

It was cold up there! I tell ya, I was under-dressed. Luckily, I still had my vacation suitcase in the car with me. I put on a sweat suit (track suit), and continued to stand there and chat with my boo in the still of the night. It was cold and dark and quite. It was a hell of an experience!

We later went for a walk on the mountain. It was scary, Calvin kept telling me that he thought he heard something. I'd be like, what could it be? 'A Mountain Lion!' I tell ya, I didn't even know what exactly that was then but I was kinda shaken. I didn't think it smart to be in the middle of nowhere, barehanded where there were things called mountain lions. Calvin told me to pick up a few rocks, he would clap his hands every now and again. Apparently, that would scare them away or something. Being on top of the mountain like that, I couldn't resist yelling to the top of my voice. Just for the echo fun of it. 
Tip of another mountain on my right

By the way, on our way back to the car, I urgently needed to pee. What? Are you kidding me? Great, the Pumas are going to get me! I also didn't want Calvin standing there watching me pee. Not cute! I survived!

That's how dark it was up the mountain!

On our way back home, we stopped by a mall and had Japanese for dinner. OMG, so good! I had a seafood soup with all kinds of seafood in it! It was so good. I am not a soup person but I love all the seafood soups I have had so far.
Japanese Seafood Soup

From the ocean to the Mountain, the best that Southern California has to offer!