Afrikaans Female DJ’s to be represented by 4Elements

AFRIDANS is the first commercial Afrikaans Disc Jockey’s to hit the South African entertainment market.
Trained by DJ Craig White from United DJ’s SA, these two beautiful ladies mixes the hottest Afrikaans music.

4Elements will serve as Brand Ambassadors and Artist Management for AfriDans in South Africa and Africa

What makes them unique?

“The AFRIDANS girls have the moves to go with the music. Extremely entertaining to watch, these ladies are performers and will have any crowd on the dance floor until the early morning hours” says Lorinda Voges of 4Elements.

AFRIDANS also plays commercial English music.

International DJ Diamond to be represented by 4Elements

DJ Diamond currently continues to be featured in many of the top iconic magazines including Playboy, Maxim, FHM, Esquire and OYE both as a model and an artist. DJ Diamond has also starred in the internationally syndicated Spike TV reality show "The Club"and Playboy's "Cover Girl".


DJ Diamond is regularly featured as a guest DJ on Sirius/XM's global satellite Channel Area on the "Porterhouse Show". She is also a resident DJ for the international and renowned mega club chain "Privilege".


"She has graced the turntables in over 35 counties and played with many of the largest DJ superstars on the planet, the 4Elements team are proud to represent her in Africa" Says Lorinda Voges Director of 4Elements


With high energy sets of Electro to Funky House, and Progressive to Hard Trance, watching DJ Diamond shine in the booth is an experience in itself. Her music and her high octane level of energy leaves the crowd feeling fueled up and ready to go on and on and on.

5fm DJ and SA Style Awards winner – Poppy Ntshongwana to be represented by 4Elements

4Elements are proud to announce that 5fm DJ and SA Style Awards winner for Most Innovative Style in 2011 - Poppy Ntshongwana are now part of the 4Elements team

As many might know, Poppy has been a Contributor and News anchor on the Fresh Drive for the past four years.

She’s also been presenting her own show early week day mornings from 3am - 6am while remaining a fixture on 5FM’s super popular afternoon drive show hosted by DJ Fresh.

“Now with her own show on 5FM, it seems certain that Poppy Ntshongwana has a bright future ahead of her, coupled with a strong resolution to succeed” says Lorinda Voges of 4Elements.

The stylish presenter has many hobbies, including a love for fashion, gadgets and extreme sports. She loves reading and is a lover of all types of music – from Andrea Boticelli to Linkin Park.

Beetle Juice anyone?

Miss-Eager-Beaver (that's me for those who don't know) decided on Valentines day to be adventurous and order us a round of the famous Bellinis Cocktail - at Bellinis in Illovo of course.

For those who don't know, the Bellinis Cocktail is a long drink cocktail that originated in Venice. It is a mixture of sparkling wine and peach purée often served at celebrations. It is one of Italy's most popular cocktails.

What most of us DON'T know - including myself - was that the Belllinis Cocktail have a coloring ingredient called Carmine in it.

So being the researcher I can be, I immediately Googled "Carmine" and this is what was discovered:

Carmine is used as a food dye in many different products such as juices, ice cream, yogurt, and candy etc. But the best of it all - Carmine is prepared by boiling dried insects in water!

So you can imagine the shock when I realized the famous new cocktail we were trying out on our romantic Valentines date was in fact - Beetle Juice!

PS> Food products containing carmine-based food dye may prove to be a concern for people who are allergic to carmine, or people who choose not to consume any or certain animals, such as vegetarians, vegans, and followers of religions with dietary law (e.g. kashrut in Judaism and halaal in Islam).

Wild on life - Elephant Sighting at Madikwe

“Don’t ask what the world needs...."

".....Ask what makes you come alive,
and go do it.
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality...

My test of a good novel is dreading to begin the last chapter. ~Thomas Helm

You are loved...

There comes a time when you’re so absolutely, irrevocably consumed by everything occurring around you.
How can we see the light at the end of the tunnel if we’ve not yet recognized the tunnel we alone have built? And not just current events, but the epic whirlpool of past & future: feelings, circumstances and decisions already made & long passed; and possible, potential decisions, failures, triumphs which may or may not ever occur.
And where do we go when all of this seems just too frightening? To what cave do we crawl to shut our tiny eyes against the maelstrom – pulling over ourselves the familiar cloak of mildly consoling distraction against the storm of fear.
Often we seek familiar patterns of escapism to avoid reminding ourselves we’ve given in to fear once more. Because that’s all it boils down to, right?
Fear, or love.
Every thought, word, deed, emotion, once stripped of all the complication, essentially stems from either Love or Fear. And so we have a choice, as always.

That choice is our only true freedom. The choice to fear, to retreat, to allow ourselves to be pulled down that egoic whirlpool – the chorus of voices in our minds, echoing how small you are; how useless, telling you you’ve already failed at The Real Thing, and who do you think you are for even trying?

Or, we can be bold. We can surrender to Love only.

We can realise those voices are not us. In this single, precious, fleeting moment – the space between breaths, this quiet awareness – there is only Love, really. Choose instead to be brave. Choose to be right here. Choose the kindest action, the kindest word. Wear your heart on your sleeve. Regardless of what’s happened before, or what you fear may happen at some unknown point in time. Above all else, let the love consume you. Let it creep into the darkest corners of yourself; let it flow through you into everything you do.

And know that you, little one, are loved.

The world is governed more by appearance than realities so that it is fully as necessary to seem to know something as to know it. ~Daniel Webster

I read this quote and thought... "well THAT takes the presure off." :)
Have a great Friday.

20 guidelines for a good and moral life

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ beautiful new book, Letters to the Next Generation really touched my soul when I started reading it.
It's a collection of letters from a father to his children on the purpose of life.

Here is a list of his 20 guidelines for a good and moral life.

1. Never try to be clever. Always try to be wise.

2. Respect others even if they disrespect you.

3. Never seek publicity for what you do. If you deserve it, you will receive it. If you don’t, you will be attacked. In any case, goodness never needs to draw attention to itself.

4.When you do good to others, it is yourself, your conscience and your self-respect, that will be the beneficiary. The greatest gift of giving is the opportunity to give.

5. In life, never take shortcuts. There is no success without effort, no achievement without hard work.

6. Keep your distance from those who seek honour. Be respectful, but none of us is called on to be a looking glass for those in love with themselves.

7. In everything you do, be mindful that God sees all we do. There is no cheating God. When we try to deceive others, usually the only person we succeed in deceiving is ourself.

8. Be very slow indeed to judge others. If they are wrong, God will judge them. If we are wrong, God will judge us.

9. Greater by far than the love we receive is the love we give.

10. It was once said of a great religious leader, that he was a man who took God so seriously that he never felt the need to take himself seriously at all. That is worth aspiring to.

11. Use your time well. Life is short, too short to waste on television, computer games and unnecessary emails; too short to waste on idle gossip, or envying others for what they have, too short for anger and indignation; too short to waste on criticising others. “Teach us to number our days”,
says the Psalm, “that we may get a heart of wisdom.” But any day on which you have done some good to someone has not been wasted.

12. You will find much in life to distress you. People can be careless, cruel, thoughtless, offensive, arrogant, harsh, destructive, insensitive, and rude. That is their problem, not yours. Your problem is how to respond. “No one”, a wise lady once said, “can make you feel inferior without your permission”. The same applies to other negative emotions. Don’t react. Don’t respond. Don’t feel angry, or if you do, pause for as long as it takes for the anger to dissipate, and then carry on with the rest of life. Don’t hand others a victory over your own emotional state. Forgive, or if you can’t forgive, ignore.

13. If you tried and failed, don’t feel bad. God forgives our failures as soon as we acknowledge them as failures – and that spares us from the self-deception of trying to see them as success. No one worth admiring ever succeeded without many failures on the way. The great poets wrote bad poems; the great artists painted undistinguished canvases; not every symphony by Mozart is a masterpiece. If you lack the courage to fail, then you lack the courage to succeed.

14. Always seek out the friendship of those who are strong where you are weak. None of us has all the virtues. Even a Moses needed an Aaron. The work of a team, a partnership, a collaboration with others who have different gifts or different ways of looking at things, is always greater
than any one individual can achieve alone.

15. Create moments of silence in your soul if you want to hear the voice of God.

16. If something is wrong, don’t blame others. Ask, how can I help to put it right?

17. Always remember that you create the atmosphere that surrounds you. If you want others to smile, you must smile. If you want others to give, you must give. If you want others to respect you, you must show your respect for them. How the world treats us is a mirror of how we treat the world.

18. Be patient. Sometimes the world is slower than you are. Wait for it to catch up with you, for if you are on the right path, eventually it will…

19. Never worry when people say that you are being too idealistic. It is only idealistic people who change the world, and do you really want, in the course of your life, to leave the world unchanged?

20. Be straight, be honest, and always do what you say you are going to do. There really is no other way to live.

My China Journal

Of course I have to write a “short story” about my China Trip in December 2010.

I traveled Emirates Airlines via Dubai bound for China, my first trip to the most populated country in the world.

Now look, I have been blessed to have travelled twice in 2010 to the USA, but nothing could have prepared me for this overseas trip.

I was once told that New York is the city that never sleeps – they stand under correction as I strongly believe China is the country that never sleeps!

According to the Xinhua National Bureau of Statistics, China has a population of 1.2 billion people. So it must be true what I've heard a long time ago –Did you know that if all people in Mainland China would jump for one minute at the same time, there would be a disastrous earthquake and considering that Chinese people are scattered all over the planet, the figure also probably explains why more people speak Chinese than English.

What else did I pick up?
The country's GNP is 7.3 trillion Yuan, life expectancy is 71 years, urban population is 30 percent, illiterate population is 12 percent, portion of national budget spent on defense is 10 percent, and farmers' annual income amounts to 2,162 Yuan.

During my 14 day stay in China I visited the following provinces:

BEIJING:
Beijing), also known as Peking is a metropolis in Northern China, and the capital of the People's Republic of China..
The interesting thing I noticed about Beijing is that it’s a major transportation hub, with dozens of railways, roads and motorways passing through the city.




NANJING:
Nanjing is the capital of Jiangsu province, China, and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture.
Nanjing has always been one of China's most important cities. It served as the capital of China during several historical periods and is recognized as one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China. Nanjing was the capital of the Republic of China before the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
Nanjing is the second largest commercial center in the East China region, after Shanghai.

ZHENGZHOU:
Zhengzhou, is a prefecture-level city, and the capital of Henan province. It also serves as the political, economic, technological, and educational centre of the province, as well as being a major transportation hub for Central China.




INNER MONGOLIA:

Inner Mongolia is located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the country of Mongolia (alternatively known as Outer Mongolia) and the Russian Federation. Its capital is Hohhot and the largest city is Baotou.
The majority of the population in the region is Han Chinese, with a substantial Mongol minority.



Every meal became extra memorable because it was a meal full of exotic food. Since this was a first in a lifetime experience, I decided to break my own rules and indulge in every single meal which of course resulted to 2kg of extra weight later!
Time always attaches people to places, and in fourteen days, I felt that in China.
It's a long and storied attachment that grew ever since I stepped on Chinese soil.
And now that my journey has taken a full circle, I couldn't help but be swept by a wave of nostalgia. When the airplane took off, I closed my eyes, recited a prayer of thanks, and saw an aerial view of polluted Beijing for the last time. Up there, things appeared to be tiny, and yet I know, the country I just left was both fast and slow, old and new, commercial and spiritual, quiet and noisy.

It is a country very much different from my Western colonial background, but very similar, too.. Without even knowing it, I realize now that a part of my checkered psychedelic life was very Chinese. But aren't we all?