All my other weekends had been slam packed with exciting touristy activities (Don't get me wrong, all my weekends have been AMAZING) but this past weekend had no schedule, no fees, no waiver-signing. Robz and I sprung off our beach weekend marathon with an unconventional Saturday afternoon picnic! Instead of packing an apple pie, carrots, and sandwiches in a woven straw basket, we stuffed ice cream, chocolates, sodas, chips, and grapes (had to bring something healthy) into a cooler. We plopped down onto our two towels, beholding an everlasting view of the ocean, munching on Simba chips and testing out different food combinations during our four hour picnic. Around 5pm the ocean waves began to crash hectically onto the shore and the wind picked up several knots; I didn't need to be back at Camp Seafarer to know that we'd better get off the beach. Fast.
Back in the comfort of Robz's home, a mixture of sleek city interior and yet simultaneously a panoramic beach view, we had to quickly get cleaned up for Robz's neighbors who were coming over for dinner that night. Judy, Robz's 12-year-old sister, sprinted into the computer room an hour later, ecstatic about the idea of making a dessert for our guests--after two months of Home Economics classes at St.Anne's I figured it would be a piece of cake (Haha sorry, no pun intended) to create a dessert...I was wrong. After much deliberation and website hunting we decided on a marshmallow pudding. It seemed simple enough; we followed the recipe, mostly consisting of melted chocolate, flour, sugar, condensed milk, and marshmallow and plus I'd watched half an episode of Master Chef Australia everyday for the past week; I figured that we'd ace the recipe. However, only after we had sloshed all the ingredients into a bowl and were stirring it around did we realize how sketch the recipe sounded: It said to place the pudding into the oven for 1 minute. 1 minute? What is that going to do? And plus, the recipe didn't even specify the oven temperature. Lesson learned: Never trust the Internet. But we couldn't just stop then, we had a whole bowl of ingredients; we figured that we weren't brought up to be cowards and wimps. We had to experiment, be chaotic and improvise a little! I know you're dying of suspense so let me just tell you the ending result: It was a multi-layered pudding/jelly like substance with melted pink marshmallows on top--I loved it. I would call it an "acquired taste".
Later that night I met Robz's next-door neighbors, a family with several kids, the eldest boy, Hlubi, is 19 and in varsity and the youngest girl is about 4! The 19-year-old is possibly one of the most talkative people I've met, finally someone who talks as much as I do! He reminded me almost of Gus; he showed us his high school choir's performances while singing along and doing the dance moves in exact timing with the Youtube video (the taped and live performances were impressive, I must say!). The five of us eldest kids, Robz, Hlubi, Judy, Hlubi's little sister, and I watched Made of Honor (Patrick Dempsey rocks any neighborhood gathering) and by the end of it Robz, Judy, and Hlubi's little sister had gone off to bed. But Hlubi and me, being two of the chattiest people on this earth, stayed up and watched Will Ferrell in The Other Guys, he and I basically talking through the whole movie. We literally talked about everything from the NFL, to China's future, and even why Americans are the only people in the world not embracing rugby. But eventually at 2 AM on Sunday morning after Will Ferrell delivered his last punchline of the movie, Hlubi knew he had to head home and I knew I'd better get some sleep.
The next morning I changed straight from my pajamas into my swimsuit and Robz and I hit the beach! After attempting to obtain a beachy tan, we headed to the wonderland in every girl's dreams: the mall. Our shopping excursion lasted four hours--now that's intense shopping. With plastic bags full of souvenirs, jewelery, and gifts, Robz and I headed back to her casa and gladly flopped on the couch with a piece of traditional milk tart to witness the USA rugby team (It's pathetic, I didn't even know we had a rugby team!) get pumbled by the Irish. But, as Robz's dad put it, the USA's result wasn't that bad: they "came second"...out of two teams!
My last night in Ballito was true to the nature of the town, chill and relaxed. I painted my toenails (my goodness, they were in desperate need!) while Robz worked on her English essay and Hlubi entertained us with his stories. We attempted one last food experiment: transforming banana flavored cereal, ProNutra, into cupcakes...they weren't bad, but then again, they weren't good either. But I would still give Robz and me a thumbs up for effort!
The exceptional quality of Ballito's relaxed vibe is that the chillness rubs off on everything: the weather, the land, the food, and of course, the people. Everyone lets their inhibitions and worries go when they're tanning and swimming at Ballito's beaches. The air there just carries the scent of picnics and sunscreen, afternoon swims and food experiments all the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment