Friday, February 05, 2016

Terrible Twos

My sister Pumla was about to come on vacation to The US. I was psyched! It was going to be my first time seeing a family member in person since moving to The US. The trip was meant to be to the East Coast but she was working on coming to the west coast as well. I crossed my fingers so hard, my entire hands fell asleep! She has been to Connecticut, Chicago and New York. It would be her first time in the West Coast.

Whenever I would see something fun, I would make a mental not to do it with her. She was planning on being here for a week to ten days. I told her we should try to go to Vegas during those days. I mean, only five hour drive, of course we could do it! Even if we were going to spend a day or two, Vegas isn't big anyways! I secretly had my own plans. She had always wanted to visit San Francisco. My plan was, if she's gonna be here for  days, we're going to San Francisco! It was going to be the trip of a lifetime! I was so excited! 

One weekend, Calvin and I had plans, I took the bus to meet him downtown because we were going to go to the beach thereafter, we didn't want to drive in two cars. I didn't mind taking the bus. The only thing better would have been for Calvin to pick me up but  I didn't want to be divalicious. It worked out because I called my sister while on the bus to check where she was. She had just arrived in New York! I was so psyched to hear it! Knowing she was so close to me, made me feel that much closer to her in so many ways. It was a great way to start my day! She told me about her fight and everything. She was staying right in Times Square. I had flashbacks of my first time in Times Square in . One of my favorite moments ever! We talked until I arrived downtown. After that, I was bouncing off the walls with excitement. Calvin told me he was going to meet me at the bus stop. Which was nice. I told him when I was close, he circled the bus stop until I arrived. I hopped off the bus and on his car as quickly as possible as there is never street parking Downtown LA. Calvin looked so cute, he had a nice navy and white Hawaiian shirt on. Not those in your face ones, a nice and calm one, thank goodness! You know, he loves Hawaii, I could only imagine how many more were where that came from. Anyway, the color of the shirt brought out the color of his eyes. Also, he had the right size shorts on haha, that made him look even taller than he already is. He has some giant clothes that Calvin! Some of his pants fit me and the guy is slim. You know me, I'm the furthest thing from slim!

We went to a Japanese festival type gig in Little Tokyo, Downtown LA. Very close to Carly's. She and I have been to Little Tokyo together. We found a parking garage, left the car there and walked to the Japanese thing. We had a few Japanese snacks in the square, watched an eating competition and then went inside to check out the bonsais.
Bonsai at the Japanese American Cultural Center

They were all so beautiful. They looked picturesque. I enjoyed the show. Calvin has a collection of his own, so he talked to the people more about bonsaing, I on the other hand was just waiting on the sidelines because I don't know the first thing about mini trees. I would have cropped it but I spent so much time trying to find these pictures, then realised I lost them, I may have deleted them the one time I accidentally hit delete before all the pictures sent via Bluetooth, thereby deleting all the selected to be sent pictures. I found this on my Instagram and just took a screen shot. Anyway, isn't that a beautiful tree? It looks unreal! 

After the bonsai tree, Calvin bought Mochi Ice Cream: golf ball sized ice pasta like, consistency, rice, filled with ice cream. It's very cold! I know it's ice but I think because of the texture,the ricey part doesn't melt in your mouth, so it seems colder than regular melt in your mouth ice cream. They have all kinds of flavors.

Mochi Ice Cream
We then headed out to a Hawaiian festival in Long Beach. It was so hot outside, I just wanted to stay in the Japanese place with the trees and chill in the air-conditioned room. 

We arrived in Long Beach, parked the car and walked around, checking out the stalls. It was your usual flea market, with handmade bags and shoes and other Hawaiian stuff. I felt like I was in Durban, South Africa. I love Durban, so that was a good thing! 

A week or so prior, I had asked Calvin, while at his place if he by any chance had a sarong, so when he saw one at the festival, he bought it for me. He told me to pick one I liked. Having lived in Durban, I had so many Sarongs in my past life, so I tried to find one in a color I never owned. We both agreed on it. It was green and black, green is Cal's favorite color. That and red, hashtag Christmas!

We had lunch at the festival, the food was good. I had something porky as usual and Calvin ordered sea food. The food lines were so long, you know how it always is at places like that. The food was good, we also had ribs. After eating, we headed out. Thank goodness, I was tired of digging my feet in the sand in the scorching heat. 

Long Beach, California aka LBC with Catalina Island behind me and my new sarong in my hand

The morning after the above weekend, I had a shoot in Calabasas. It was nice and early in the morning, so  I beat traffic, thank goodness for small miracles. I must have been the first or second one to arrive. I took out my tablet and caught up on my reading while waiting for everybody else. It was beautiful over there, mountains all around us. It wasn't a big shoot, maybe 20 people. some people didn't make it, they had to be replaced in short notice, one lady was two hours late.  We were going to do a choregraphed scene as well. I enjoyed it. I worked with a guy I had done a few commercials with before. We get along, he's crazy. 

They gave me an apron and pointed me to this as my first position
Peace of cake! I've done this kind of a character so many times, it's become second nature. I don't know if any of you spotted me in a commercial that ran for a very long time on SABC (South Africa), usually during Generations (a South African Soap opera) where they had a woman selling fruit and vege. I was that woman, I saw it one day when I was visiting my sister in Cape Town. She was like, what the heck! This has been running for a while, I never thought that was you, lol. Of course she knows what I look like, she just didn't expect that to be me. Anyway, I put on my apron and went to town!

Fruit and Vege Stall
This was more contemporary because they let me wear my tank top and leggings still. The stall has drawers, so I was able to have my cellphone with me and chat with my boyfriend the entire time. It was great! 

There were a bunch of contemporary dancers who danced during this scene, I was doing my selling thing while they were dancing in front of me. 

Lunch Time! 

The food was great! It almost always is on set. We all sat and bonded at lunch 

In between Takes. The three who got the yellow memo.Haha, just a coincidence
It rained a bit that day as well, nothing major. I mean, it is LA after all. It never really rains. The two things you'd be hard pressed to find in LA: Rain and parking. 


After lunch, we did the 'dance scene'. It was my first time doing choreography, I enjoyed it. It wasn't hard. I wish I could find the clip and see the outcome and share it with you. 

That's me in my apron, holding a flower, doing choreography

After lunch, the two hour late lady, went to lie down on the porch. I called my sister in her hotel room. It was nice to talk to her in a landline without having to worry about buying credit for my phone. All of a sudden, I heard roaring! The two hour lady was snoring up a storm! Oops!

The blue abd blackness you see is the snoring lady. She was far but I could hear her!

During the dance scene, they kept telling us, guys please but your bags and sweaters away, they're in the shot. There was this person's stuff that was sitting there with nobody touching it. Eventually, one of the lead dancers, just grabbed it and put it away, angrily. I had a feeling it was the snoring two hour lady's stuff. There was just something so off about her. I couldn't put my finger on it. Or should I say, I could? A few minutes later, we're rehearsing, I look down, bam! A giant pad made out of toilet paper full of blood on the ground! The two hour lady was on her periods! Yikes! I had had it with her shenanigans by then, I just rolled my eyes, looked at her and pointed to the ground. She quickly picked it up, without too many people seeing it. I didn't want to see where she was going to shove it. I had already seen enough!

After filming, I headed toward my car to wait for traffic to die down a bit. I considered to go to the house where they film The Bachelor. I have the address. I wanted to see how much of the house I could see from the street, without, you know, trespassing! I was chatting with the guy I have worked with before, when out of nowhere the two hour lady popped up and asked me for a ride. In that moment, I felt bad for her because she had clearly had a rough day. I said yes. That place is in the middle of nowhere. I am not sure why she submitted her name for it, to begin with. She told me a story about how she tried to get closer the night before by booking a hotel room closer to the place. I know the hotel wasn't in Calabasas because they weren't paying us enough to afford that! She told me it was a long story. I didn't want to dig because I didn't care, really. We sat and chatted about random stuff. She asked me a lot of personal questions and told me about herself too. Her rich sisters, the stuff she owns, apparently, she is quite well off. I honestly don't care, but I guess she felt the need to tell me. 

I dropped the two hour lady near my house, it seemed like she was comfortable, she didn't want to go home. We aren't friends, I didn't want her in my car let alone my home. I have her a ride to give her a break from what seemed like a weird day for her. But enough was enough. She asked for my number, I took hers and told her I would call her. I never did. Sorry, but for what reason?
On Set at Union Station, Downtown LA for a different shoot, talking to Calvin on the phone




2 comments:

  1. I remember that ad and I thought it was your sister. I think at one time she said it was you.

    And then I spoke to your sister after she came back from the States. I asked if you guys met. I didn't know that you had moved to LA already. Thought you were still in Vegas

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    Replies
    1. Yup, that was me! I shot it just before I left for Eastern Europe.
      Vegas is just as far from New York as LA

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