How I Spent Women's Day

Last Friday, us folk here in South Africa celebrated Women's Day. 

The University gave us the day off seeing as it was a public holiday (this is something I am still getting used to as when I was in school we were expected to be there regardless of whether it was a public holiday or not). Seven of my friends and I decided to take full advantage of this day off and so we planned a little road trip to Port Alfred; a little beach town about 60km's away from Grahamstown. 

The weather report predicted a 70% chance of rain and a maximum temperature of 15 degrees Celsius, and so when we woke up on Friday morning and saw that the sun was trying desperately to come out, we were very happy! The weather was really pleasant and it only started drizzling on our way home in the late afternoon.

At about 8am the 8 of us excitedly hopped into two different cars and were on our way off. Our parents would be so proud to know that we got lost within 4 km's of leaving the campus!

Our sweet little rides - Blue Betty and Franc's yet to be named Audi.

Franc following us in convoy.

Our first stop was the tiny little town of Bathurst - home of the world's largest pineapple. Bathurst is known for it's delicious pineapples. In The Big Pineapple is a little self-guided museum on the history of pineapples. Now I need to be honest here and let you know that not one of us were particularly interested in the history of pineapples, but how could we pass up an opportunity to be Spongebob for an hour or so? The Big Pineapple stands at just over 17m high! Here we met a darling fat cat known as Mr Bojangles, took some photos in the gale force winds and tried our best to be interested in the history of the pineapple.

Stacey, Megan, Me, Wes, Emma, Angie and Franc.

Wes and I.

Megs and I.

The twins, Stace and Ang and I.

Mr Bojangles. He did a great job of making me miss my little fur balls back home!

Climbing up inside the pineapple.

A view from the top of the large fruit.

Ang and I braving the wind.

After spending about an hour in Bathurst we finally arrived in Port Alfred. We excitedly leaped out of the cars, took our shoes off and ran onto the beach. It was a perfect day. We were surrounded by our friends and we were all smiles. We took strolls along the pier, we spun around feeling free and we laughed. I hadn't been on the beach in almost a year and so it was so great to feel the sand between my pink painted toes. Because the weather predicted rain and it's still Winter here, none of us were planning on swimming or even getting our feet wet. When the weather turned out to be rather lovely, we rolled up our pants and just dipped our ankles in the waves. 

Emma and I.

 Things were going so well... Were  going so well. One of my best friends of 6 and a half years, Emma, and I were standing together when a wave a little bigger than the rest started making its way to us. Determined not to get anything above our ankles wet, we turned around and started running up the beach, away from the wave. 

Now if you know my darling Emma, you'll know she has a tendency to crab-walk. Well, this was the day that Em crab-ran into me, causing me to trip over her feet and body slam into the sand, only to have that awful wave catch up to me, dunk me and then cause me to be tossed about 50m away from our group of friends. 

Emma - bless her darling heart - was so worried and felt terrible and ran after me and helped me up. I was out of breath, I had sand everywhere, my only pair of clothes that I had with me were soaked and I was completely shocked. But before I could even come up for my first breath of air, I was laughing hysterically. I honestly thought it was the funniest thing ever (along with the rest of my friends with the exception of Em, shame she felt horrible)! I stood up, laughing my head off, and then realized I had my Blackberry in my pocket. After we had taken the battery out and said a little prayer that it would be fine, we all had a huge giggle. My dear friends were so concerned (not) that they even had time to document the incident on camera. 

Being the happy-go-lucky girl that I am, I was determined not to let this ruin my day. I was cold and covered in sand and I looked like a mess, but I was as happy as I had been all day. My sweet friends then helped me get undressed and into a pair of Wesley's shorts and his jersey (thanks Wes, you're a life saver!). I looked fabulous - let's just say that any admirers that were on that beach fled and never came back after I took my tumble! In fact I looked so fabulous that Emma (for her own piece of mind - I couldn't really be bothered with what I looked like, I was just having a good time) ran into the nearest clothing store and bought me a new pair of leggings and undies. Em, you are so sweet, I love you to bits and not even tripping me into the sea could change that!

The last photo taken before it all went down. You can see that fatal wave in the background.

It's alright, you're allowed to laugh. Everyone else did.

Em helping me get dressed into Wes' clothes.

Sweet Em dusting sand off of me.

"We're ok! We're still alive and we're still friends!"

Wes and I before the tumble - him in his clothes and me in mine.

Wes and I after the tumble - both of us in his clothes.

After we browsed around the shops for a bit we then headed off to Guido's for lunch. We were starving! Guido's is an Italian family restaurant right on the beach. I had eaten there with my parents before and we had a really pleasant experience although, unfortunately I can't say the same for this time! The staff were really rude to us, I found a few hairs in my food and as Emma bit into her pizza she bit a piece of glass that must have been baked in the pizza. Her gum started bleeding and the manager basically told her that she was lying when she informed him of this. Other than that, we had a really great lunch but we don't think we'll be going back to Guido's anytime soon.

My Thai Chicken Pizza

 

We came out of Guido's a little disappointed at the service we had received, but we had had such a beautiful day. It was late afternoon and had started to drizzle and so we pilled into the cars and made our way home. All in all, I wouldn't have wanted to spend Women's Day in any other way. It really was an amazing day with some truly special people!

A full boot means time to head home!

And that, my friends, is how I spent my Women's Day. I hope you all have a beautiful week!
PS - my dear Blackberry never survived :( May she rest in peace!
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