John's Birthday Braai

September 11 was John's birthday...so we had to celebrate and celebrate we did. On Saturday I attended my first ever South African Braai...and I must tell you it was AMAZING!

Guess who did not have her camera yet again...me. BUT I am supposed to be getting some pictures soon.

I started my day on Saturday going for a jog, cleaning, and going out to lunch with Rhonda. Then I got on the bus and headed to Laura's to start celebrating one of my favorite people. I felt like a superstar as I approached Laura's apartment. I had my headphones in but I heard some shouting so I took them out of my ears and looked around, I look up and see a crazy person hanging out of the apartment...It was Ian, followed by John, and Laura even managed to stick her hand out and give a wave and a shout! It made me laugh but also feel so loved and welcome....good friends are truly the best things to find in life.

I got to Laura's house and Ian informed me that we were going to have a hard boiled egg peeling competition. Now, I don't know about you but I have never been in that sort of competition before...I was excited because I feel like I have a pretty good handle on peeling eggs. There were 4 of us and 6 eggs for potato salad. We decided to do boys vs. girls, three eggs each per team. Time started and we were off....I am pretty sure I peeled my egg in like 2 seconds...I was super fast if I must say so myself...so I grabbed our second egg and ripped into it like the egg peeling champ that I am. I finished it and saw that Ian was on their third egg, John was done, and Laura was working like a champ to finish her first. Ian and Laura basically finished at the same exact time...but the boys being boys called it in their favor...we were robbed. :) But it was a lot of fun.

After that I helped Laura make a bread that grills over the braai...geroosterde brood, it is Afrikaans for roasted bread and it is super yummy. She made a bread dough and then let it rise for a bit. Then we put butter, garlic, and salt on it and folded it over into a little pocket of yummy goodness. They had to rise a bit again and then Ian the braaier cooked them later.

John went to pick up some people from the tube station and other people started arriving for the Braai. We made our way up to the roof. Ian and John had a great set up. They lit the fire and the braai was underway! We had an abundance of food and it was all delicious! There was so much meat and we were all going crazy over it! I don't know if absence makes the heart grow fonder or if the meat was just uber excellent...but it was. We had chicken legs, boerewors, steak, chicken breast, and some pork. Ian did a superb job cooking the meat. He cooked it all and then cut it up and we ate it potluck style. Unfortunately, it started to sprinkle a little so we had to use our umbrellas. John held the umbrella and I held our plate and it was my job to keep our meat coming. We also had potato salad and a very nice lettuce salad. It was delicious. We all stood around the braai and just kept commenting how amazing everything was...It was some seriously delicious food.

We cleaned up the roof because the security guard was okay with us being up there only if there was 'no waste'. After we cleaned up we decided to go to Norebong. Now, if you don't know what that is...you are missing out! It is some good fun. It is karaoke...except it is like 1,000 times better than Karaoke. First of all you get your own room. Yes...your own room. In the room there are couches and two huge screens where you can watch some random Korean music videos while your 'English' song plays. It is nice because at Karaoke you have to wait for your name to be called, listen to some truly awful strangers murder songs, and embarrass yourself in front of said strangers. At Norebong you are with your people...there is no waiting in between songs, they have fun costumes, tambourines, and disco balls. There is no waiting for your name to be called, and if people are murdering songs it is people you like so you are not as annoyed with them. It was so much fun! I was happy to have a Norebong experience. I wish we had them in the States.

I didn't bring anything to spend the night so I needed to make sure I was able to catch the last train. So, I left right after Norebong. It was raining a bit and I didn't have an umbrella so I was running in my flip flops. I crossed the street, jumped up onto the curb and quickly did the most ungraceful fall known to man. Flip flops+rain+marble soaked curbs= Holly going splat. I picked myself up and continued to run to the train, caught it just in time, sat down to inspect the damage I had done to myself. I had a cut on my knee, a cut on my toe, and a goose-egg on my ankle. It was weird...Nothing really hurt but I was slightly concerned about my ankle because it was so hard and goose-eggy...I got home and iced it. I woke up the next morning and it was bruised and still swollen. Needless to say I didn't want to answer a lot of questions at work about it so I wore pants for the whole week hiding my goose-egg and bruise. I still have a goose-egg but it never really hurt too much...just looked nasty. Will I ever make it through a weekend bruise free again?

It was yet another great weekend spent with amazing people! I think John had a good birthday, so that is all that really matters!

Holly