So what HAS been happening?

Needless to say, it’s been a while since my last post. There are some questions that have been thrown to me on Facebook, most notably the decidedly frightening:

“When is your CD coming out?”

To answer this question straight off the bat, I don’t know. Please don’t be angry with me. It’s not that I am deliberately being obtuse, I honestly don’t know. How can I explain this… okay, let’s try this.

Imagine you are a person. More specifically, a person who LOVES pink.

Now imagine that pink is what people think you are. Because, technically, at the moment it is. For YEAAAAAAAAAAARS, all you are and all you want to be is pink. You’ve dabbled in purples and reds here and there but ultimately you’ve always come back to pink.

You’re about to repaint and you look around and suddenly think “I don’t know if I want all this pink. I wonder if I should consider those red and purples again…maybe a bit of green, some yellows even…”

And suddenly this whole UNIVERSE of colours OPENS out in front of you and it suddenlybecomesSOHARD

TOFOCUSBECAUSEYOUJUSTWANTTOTRYEVERYTINYSINGLECOLOURINTHE

WORLDWBUTALLATONCETOTHEPOINTWHEREYOUMIGHTJUST …explode.

With sheer awesomeness.

And it becomes very overwhelming.

What I’m getting at here, to put it in a slightly more realistic and accurate context, is that most of my musical life I have done acoustic folky kind of stuff. So much of it that it seems to be what my music is defined as. Have your heard my original music? I don’t have a lot but it is there. You want to hear it? Go here.

The worst part is I probably have about an albums worth of songs. I don’t like  lot of them any more. I still like some of them, mostly the ones I have on the Myspace page. But I don’t feel connected to a lot of them any more. I got to a point where I stopped writing because I felt like I had nothing to write about any more. The last time I wrote a song that actually came to completion was, I think, the end of 2008. It’s been a very long time and I am trying to break it. I am working on it, unfortunately you have to take my word for it here. I have nothing to show you…yet. But I do, however, have a plan. It is a simple, small plan which is why it SHOULD work.

I have been thinking about how to do this CD for a while but over the weekend, an amazing musician who I have the privilege of knowing, basically said (this is isn’t even paraphrased, it’s completely reworded with the the gist of what he said) don’t try and make a full length album. Make a few demo’s. Put work into a few songs and make them brilliant rather than trying to hammer out a 14 song album where the pressure to finish it will make it mediocre. Thank you Jonathan Handley. You are a wise, wise man. And you have the coolest dress style. Just saying.

So this is the plan: By December this year, I hope to produce a 4 – 6 track CD of original music. Before you get too excited, it will not be available from your major music retailers etc because I most certainly do not have THAT kind of pull. It will be available at gigs and if I am astute I will set up some kind of ordering scheme if you so desire.

But why only December? There are several reasons for this.

1. I’ve barely begun to work on the material. This is key. Imagine 6 tracks of silence.
2. I’m financing this myself, I need to do as my budget allows me.
3. I have other stuff I’m doing to, like work, gigs AND (I’m very excited about this) the musical production at the Hexagon Theatre, “The Beatle Show”. YAY! I’ve been in several Hex productions and as much as I love music I LOVE drama. So, imagine drama and music together? YAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!!!

Someone I was once close to, told me that I’d have to grow up and choose between music and drama. The chance to do this show with the Hex has reminded me that I don’t have to do any such thing. And possibly it was one of the reasons why I didn’t do as well as I could have last year, because I tried to ignore the Drama of music.

Here is a random picture to break up all the words:

Music and Drama are so deeply intertwined, how could you ever separate them? The reason we love music so much is because it evokes emotions, taps into our cores, our souls and, basically, bleeds them dry. And drama does the same. Every TV Show, Film, Play, animation, has some corresponding soundtrack to better entrench the emotions the story is trying to evoke.  I know I’m just rambling now but it feels important. I think that what I may be trying to get at is that I will NOT choose between the things I love again. I love music, drama, books, art and a whole bunch of other shit too. And I am not giving any of it up.

A couple of people have asked me if I wasn’t offered any recording contracts. Well, as you may or may not know, Universal had first option on everyone in the top 10. From what I understand they used that option with both Mark and Lefa. The rest of us, well, we’re not what they’re looking for. Over December I went to Jo’burg to do a Charity Concert for the disabled. It was meant to be televised but stuff happened. Toughies! Anyway, the people who organised it basically decided to start their own studio. And so, Stone Studios came into being. They did offer me a contract. Initially I said yes, but with further thought and consideration, it wasn’t right for me just then. In time I may ask them if they are still interested but until I know what the hell I’m doing, I’m on my own.

In addition to the mini-album, I’ve begun work on a script. That’s right! I’m going to make an amateur film! And it’ll probably be terrible! But that’s okay, as long as I do it. Oh yes, I’ve also done a teaching post at my old High School and a few other local things. Y’all should visit my town. It’s not the biggest or the best, but we’ve got some pretty cool stuff:)

So what have I been doing with myself since Idols ended? Not a hell of a lot, but I have been thinking. A HELL OF A LOT. Thinking’s done now. Action begins.

In the meantime, you want to catch me live? Check out these dates! No gigs during July and August for Beatleshow Rehearsals

Burglaries and Frivolities

There are no pictures in this post. Would you like to know why?

Last Sunday my house was burgled.

While I was out late and my family was asleep inside the house, burglars climbed through my open window – squeezing through the burglar bars – and unlocked my patio door with the keys on my desk. Since everyone was asleep and my lights were on their entry went undetected until I arrived home at 3:30 am and found things around the house just a little…odd.

There were cupboard doors open and a drawer or two, but nothing was screaming “bloody stinking thieves”. At first I thought someone had left things out of place to remind themselves of certain things. My dad leaves drawers open if he’s moved my mom’s stuff so that she’ll see where they’ve gone to. So I walked slowly through the house, carefully, feeling a bit more odd with every step.

Then I got to my room.

My laptop was gone off of my desk, there was stuff all over my bed.

I think that I have lived with this kind of shit for far too long because I reacted far more calmly than I think I should have. I went to my parents room, knocked politely and said in hushed tones: “I’m sorry to wake you guys buuuuut…I think we might have just been robbed…”

I couldn’t see in the dark but I’m pretty sure my mom gave my dad one hell of a hard shove to wake him up.

It seems that my coming home at 3:30 in the morning disturbed the burglars in the middle of their affairs. My room got the worst of it as they took my Laptop, my Samsung video camera (one of my Idols prizes:( ), my Mp3 player, my pillow case (we assume to put their stash in), a bag (again for stash), my Shure sm58 Microphone which was inside the bag, the TV from the lounge and the Microwave from the kitchen. They also took my favourite blanket which was later found draped over the fence.

The estimate was about R20 000 worth of stuff taken.

However, I am a fairly clever sausage because I backed up my laptop on New Years Eve so information-wise I lost about 3 weeks worth of photo’s and some other random stuff.

So why are there no pictures in this post? Because I lost all my recent pictures AND I can’t even draw new ones yet because my old laptop does not support my drawing tablet.

Here is a list of things I miss about my old laptop:

1. It supported all file extensions/hardware/software/codecs that I needed
2. It had a battery life. A short one, but at least I could move it from one plug point to the next.
3. It had a webcam. I never used it but it was nice to know it was there.
4. It had 300GB’s to save useless stuff on. This one only has 55 and most of it is just running windows. 55GB’s doesn’t even hold all of my music
5. It took less than a second to open a new tab in Chrome
6. It could run Sims 3
7. It still had its rubber feet on the base

At the same time, I am almost enjoying the limitations that my dear old Laptop provides me with. It’s like the modern version of taking it slow – because there is no other option.

Okay I lied, I drew you a picture with paint and my mouse

And yes, I named my laptop. Her brand was Dell. Right now I’m using Betsy who is a Fujitsu Siemens.

I know I sound terribly materialistic and shallow because all I can talk about is my laptop, but I’m still dealing with the reality and right now the shallow is just easier.

Here is a list of how many times in my adult life I have been robbed/burgled:

(When I was a kid I think we were burgled twice)

1. Cell Phone Stolen from next to me while I was asleep as someone stuck their arm through the window over my head
2. Bag Stolen from room at the restaurant I was living in/working at
3. Cold room broken into while asleep at restaurant
4. Bathroom of room broken into  while asleep at restaurant
5. Attempted stealing of car from Mall

There are only so many times that you can be broken into/robbed before you simply don’t know how to process it any more.

So here is another paint drawing! This one is of my sword which has a special place next to my bed:)

So I think I have bored you for long enough. Can you believe that I was going to write a blog about Tintin in 3D before this? Ha!!!HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Just to put your minds at ease, everyone in the house was fine and that is what I am most grateful for. They weren’t even aware of what had happened.

Here’s a gif that my friend Charl sent me to cheer me up. It is from the film Despicable Me and it is awesome

Right, thanks for putting up with my grumpiness. I hope you have a crime free day!

Is it true that you, not once, not twice, but 3 times called my Client a HO?

Christmas has come and gone. So has New Years eve. Along with these fabulous Holidays come New Year’s Resolutions and the fond recollections from the year that has ended. Enjoy these pictures of my year!

SA Idols: The most exciting thing I’ve done since I finished my Drama Honours. Filled with amazing memories and people:) 10 points!

Seeing Tyronasaurus Rex! Who is obviously having trouble adjusting to the time change. Welcome home TJ!

Kite Flying! I have a more bad-ass 2 string kite now but no photo’s just yet.

Discovering things one has kept for years and having a good laugh!

Getting my awesome new Epiphone Guitar!

Learning that Xylitol, while being a fabulous alternative sugar, when used in large quantities (like, for instance, baking a “healthy” birthday cake containing no sugar or wheat for my health-conscious brother) has an almost instant laxative effect

Going to things with friends and catching them in funny poses!

Meeting extraordinary people who do extraordinary things out of the goodness of their hearts, something that seems to happen less and less these days.

Doing stuff with my mom, because she’s just plain awesome!

Knowing friends who have pants that are the exact same shade of redReceiving amazing gifts from my friends and family that just prove how well they know me and hoping that my gifts to them brought them to the same conclusions

And, at the end of the day/year, knowing that my peeps have got my back, but will nonetheless kill me for calling them my peeps:) Because even MY friends have standards!

Happy New Year world and may it bring everything you hope for and more!

Learning To Take Pictures (And not just make them up)

This is not a wordy post. I recently came across a very awesome picture blog which you yourself can visit here:

http://catfights.tumblr.com/

 

Seeing this awesome array of images led me to find a similar camera effects app on my Samsung Galaxy Tab (punt punt punt – and it’s not just because they gave me free stuff, I have always been a fan of Samsung)  and my SS Phone thing. So I found an app called Retrocam which I find just adds an edge to some pictures and as a result I bring you MANY PICTURES!!! The first lot are of one of my favourite books called “The Eleventh Hour”.

Then here we have me having fun with picture taking. Yes, several are the same because I was testing the different camera effects. It’s almost Ironic how we spend years developing technology to reproduce life in HD and then design apps to make our HD photo’s look old and imperfect. Enjoy the pics:)

 

Until next time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Love Tim Burton

 

That is all.

Gif courtesy of

http://quidditchcapricious.tumblr.com/post/11288544397

 

 

Are you Ready for the Zombie Apocalypse?!?

Well…are you?

The other night I was having a drink at Cliffy’s Pub with my friends Nick, Ashton and Gareth when the conversation got onto the zombie Apocalypse, as it does, and whether we would be prepared for it. In all honesty, I raised the topic because of a dream I had had a few nights before. In the dream I had woken up to find that the whole world had turned into Zombie hell, much the same way as it does in Night of the Living Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Resident Evil (without Milla Jovovich and the whole Corporate conspiracy thing) and 28 Days Later. 

Because of this dream, over the days following, I found myself thinking “What would I do if this dream became a reality and I really did wake up one morning to find the world in the grips of zombification?”

I considered a couple of different options such as:

 Locking myself in my house and going into stealth mode.

This can result in loneliness and usually ends in death by zombie anyway.

Getting into my good ol’ Olive (car) (her name is Olive) and driving and driving and driving and driving. This results in needing to stop for petrol. It also means having to find supplies in “abandoned” stores and so on which usually results in death by zombie as well. Zombieland favoured the driving around option.

I even considered the idea of just running into the zombies and getting it over and done with. It is, after all, the inevitable result of any action or non-action.

I have a bit of info about African witchcraft and raising zombies as slaves to do evil biddings and stuff like that. I even did my Drama Honours research paper on Supernatural representation in ipi Zombie and Macbeth. The zombies I refer to have nothing to do with individuals of whatever persuasion, raising the dead to do their bidding. I base my knowledge purely in the classic Hollywood representation of these misunderstood creatures. Therefore, to assess where “non-survivors” go wrong we should consider what they do. I have covered 2 “fails” already (driving a lot and staying at home). Another popular bad-approach is the hero-style zombie-slayer. The person who goes bat-shit-crazy-zombie-killer. This person is usually a bit of a gun-toting maniac to begin with and the opportunity for maximum destruction without fear of lawful penalties tends to push them just far enough over the edge to forget everything sensible their mother tried to teach them when they were a child. They usually end up looking a bit like this:

They are usually insufferable characters who you kind of wish would get eaten and then inevitably end up dead too. Actually I’m being a bit harsh, they usually end up with a 50/50 chance. They will either survive because they have launched a freaking nuclear warhead into the middle of the zombie-zone or they will be the one who gets bitten and hides it until someone notices the fact that the flesh is falling off their face. And then chaos ensues when they infect 5 other people who all then have to die. Thank you Rambo wannabe’s for spoiling it for everyone.

We also know, thanks to Hollywood, that the staple diet of zombies is Brains. Why? Who freaking knows.

Maybe it’s because it looks like Cauliflower? You know what? I’m not even going to try and explain this one. I will look it up on Wikipedia and get back to you.

One thing is understood through all of this: You have to survive longer than the zombies. All the zombies have to be dead and gone before people can consider living safely. The question is: how does one survive long enough? I decided that the perfect thing to do, if one has the resources, would be to hide underground. Literally. If one was paranoid enough (which I may very well become), one could build an underground bunker, kind of like in Blast from the Past when they have 30 years worth of supplies. This is quite hectic. I’m kind of hoping for a couple of months at most. The faster the zombies convert the living (both human and animal alike) the faster their food source will be depleted.

This may not be the most optimistic view but it’s a thought…

Ultimately, the only way to outlast the zombies is to be out of their reach so that they can’t eat me.

See how happy the sun is? It fully supports beating the zombies. So the underground bunker is a great idea because they can’t see you there, however, the chances of having a handy bunker in the back garden are pretty much nil. The chances of having a giant tree house full of stuff is also pretty much a big fat no too.

Apart from actively planning for the zombie apocalypse, neither of these options is really helpful. But it was a nice thought all the same. The conversation around the drinks with my friends turned into contingency planning. We had discussed the ideals and now we had to come up with a strategy, A-Team style. So we pooled a couple of ideas:

Plan 1: The Mall

I had the fabulous idea that the mall would be a great place to hole up and fend off the zombies.

Why?

1: It has everything one could possibly need to survive. At least a couple years worth of canned goods and bottled water, camping gear, houseware, clothes, stuff to use as weapons.

2: There must be a shower in there somewhere, worst comes to worst we could just build one from all the stuff at Game and the camping shops.

3: The main doors have massive security grates.

4: There is a lot of space so survivors can come aplenty.

5: Our Mall, while being quite large, is quite a lot smaller than most other malls AND is all on one level, making it a lot easier to defend.

6: It is an intersection away from several car dealerships and a petrol station.

These are all very handy. Downfalls however are that it is still a large space with many back access doors. So we would probably have to blockade one specific shop, like Pick ‘n Pay, and then stockpile it with stuff from other shops. This is risky but could be done. It is not ideal but it’s what I had.

So plan number 2 that got presented by Ashton was to hole up at Makro. Makro is a very good option, probably better that the mall. Why?

1: Makro is a wholesaler and most of their stock is pre-packaged in large quantities making it much easier to stock up on stuff if we need to run.

2: It is smaller than the mall but still exceptionally big and it has less windows and entrances making it MUCH easier to defend.

3: It has many of the same benefits of the mall but in a smaller, more concentrated and more manageable area.

4: It’s in a less populated area and not in the CBD meaning a better chance of fewer zombies.

5: All camping, food, living necessities.

The only thing I don’t like about Makro is how far away it is from the Highway, alternative transportation and fuel. However, this can be countered by good planning.

Plan 3 kind of rounds back to something from earlier: the driving and driving and driving option. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think it draws a lot of attention to be the only fast moving object, more than likely drawing much attention BUT the idea of continually moving has it’s merits. Firstly, always ALWAYS choose a massive truck for the following reasons:

1: It can carry large amounts of supplies at once so if you DO get stuck somewhere you’ll be sorted for a while at least.

2: Actually fill it with supplies, try Makro (see plan 2).

3: Keeping moving means that the zombies can’t catch up. However, it also means driving towards other zombies. Be smart.

4: It is, in essence, a GIGANTIC weapon. And you can play music in it. And see the country. Hell, take a road trip, it won’t actually cost you any money, you can just loot along the way!

The problem with trucking is that you can not outrun the zombies because there will be others in different cities and if you run out of petrol or break down it causes issues. you could probably just hop out and take another from all the abandoned cars on the highways (thank you cinema-land for assuming that there will be so many cars lying around) but then you have to move all your supplies.

The four of us discussed these options at length, I think up to 2 hours worth of the evening was devoted to this brainstorming session. And then we had it. I don’t remember who said it, but it was brilliant.

A BOAT!!! How could we not have thought of it before? We could take a couple of trucks, load them up with stuff from Makro and then drive them down to the harbour and load them up onto a freighter! LOADS of space, and all we would have to do is go far enough off shore for the zombies to not get us. We couldn’t run out of fuel because we could anchor out there and only come in if necessary to get more supplies! And we would be able to watch what was happening on shore and see how bad the zombie apocalypse was. We made a rule, everyone has and is responsible for their own ablutions bucket. Everyone’s a grown up and chips in. We even went so far as considering the option of using one Shore trip to bring back earth and fertilizer and start planting crops on the deck.

With our contingency plan all sorted and our list of stuff to bring along mostly thought out, I have not dreamt of the zombie apocalypse again. The cosmos has done it’s work and I am READY.

Are you?

Back home feels…odd…but awesome!

Hello people who have condoned me enough to read my blog! It has been a while, far too long in fact! I kind of fell off the radar with the Idols schedule and even more so as I went on “retreat”. So I have had to revise this blog post as it was originally intended to be published before my elimination. I have kept it mostly intact with most changes happening in the tenses and then adding a bit on the end:) So hear it goes:

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (This is a ululation of excitement.)

I made it to the top freaking 8 …twice…! How freaking awesome! When I went for the auditions in February (thinking that if I didn’t make it through the audition, the Barnyard was having auditions the following Thursday) I never imagined that I would get so far:) The reality of having actually been there, on SA Idols, still hasn’t sunk in! I don’t know if the reality ever will! I’d like to start this post by saying a massive THANK YOU! to everyone who supported me. Without you I would never have gotten so far! So this is for you!!!:

Okay, so it’s been about 2 months since my last post and a whooooooole lot has happened! To be honest it all went so quickly that most of it is a fuzzy blur! (Kind of like a “memory” or “dream sequence” on a Soap Opera).

So here are a couple of highlights:

I got to stay in an amazing house which looks something like this:

It was originally in my previous post but I took it off because I thought they were going to do a thing about us living there but they didn’t really. So toughies. Also in the previous post was this picture I took of the Idols mascots who live at the house:

OKAY! Now that that’s taken care of we can continue! So the last few weeks of my Idols journey were kind of crazy! The highlights include that we took a trip to Ford to go and work on the designs for our cars! Each of the top 10 got to draw a design for the Ford Fiesta that the winner receives as part of their 1st prize. In addition to the winner getting a Fiesta, 1 lucky voter will win one as well! And it will be sporting the car design of the runner up! So in preparation for this eventuality we went and sat with the Graphic Artists who made digital mock-ups of each design. We were even given a poster of our car designs. It was pretty damn cool! This is what mine kinda woulda looked like:

I think it’s cool that we got to keep our posters:)

So, on one of the elimination days we were informed that we would be meeting the Belgian Minister President, Yves Leterme (Compliments of Wikipedia. I hope it’s right. He looked different in person to the picture on Wikipedia. If I am incorrect and I find out I will make an apology and a correction.) And now, looking at some other stuff on Google, he is also referred to as “Caretaker Prime Minister” of Belgium. Either way, he’s an important guy! We didn’t know what to expect, probably because none of us have really met with a foreign delegate of such importance. After his security force had sussed out The Mosaiek we proceeded to give him a kind of concert, each of us performing our song from Friday night. He seemed to enjoy it very much and after we’d finished he came up onto the stage to chat with us. He greeted each of us in turn and shook our hands and we all introduced ourselves. He chatted to me for a while about the competition and I found him to be a very pleasant man. I don’t know if my tone is too informal but I don’t know how else to put it. He was smiling at everyone and was exceptionally nice. It was an absolute pleasure to meet him:) Before he arrived we were joking that maybe he would bring us Belgian Chocolate (because …well… Belgian Chocolate = Yes.) and he actually did! They had brought two boxes of amazing Belgian Chocolate! It’s funny how Belgian Chocolate from Belgium tastes better than Belgian Chocolate from South Africa…

They really were amazing. This is NO exaggeration. So yes, that was our meeting with Minister President Yves Leterme of Belgium. One of the producers of the show told me there is actually a picture of him chatting with me in the Belgian papers. How cool is that? So, not that he will ever read this but still, a big Thank You to Minister President Leterme for meeting us, we hope you enjoyed your stay in South Africa

So those last few weeks on the show were pretty rough from a performance perspective. I had a bad run of performances, 2 weeks in a row! Some people would say I’ve had 3 bad weeks but personally I disagree, based on how I’ve felt about my performances. I think my performance of Outkast’s “Hey Ya” didn’t go very well. From my side I can say I know when it feels good and when it doesn’t. I expected to be in the bottom 3 with “Hey Ya” and was very surprised when I wasn’t. I think a lot of voters were backing me for trying to step out of my box and try something different. This is speculation on my part! It’s always hard to try and figure out what people do and don’t like because there are always a lot of mixed responses on Facebook and Twitter.

After “Hey Ya” was my Home Bru week performance of “Fine Again” by Saron Gas (Now Seether). It was, I think, my worst performance. A combination of, possibly, a bad song choice on my part (although a lot of people loved the choice) and the flu that was doing the rounds at the house. I know my sister and several of my supporters made a point of mentioning this on my fan page but I was not the only one who had been hit with it so I didn’t want it to be a voting factor. Either way, my performance was not great and it was reflected by me being in the bottom 2. I know a lot of people were upset that Phaksy was the one who had to sing for his life and not me. To be perfectly honest I was just as surprised as they were. I have great respect for Phaksy and while I was glad to have another chance, I was very sad to see him leave. In the house we all grew very close and we supported each other but we also knew that the inevitability of this show is that all but 2 will leave. It still doesn’t make it any easier to say goodbye.

After my 2 bad weeks came R&B week and I chose the song “Halo” by Beyonce. With this choice I felt the grey clouds lifting. All week long I felt amazing! I even decided to go back to my roots and play guitar. When I walked out onto that stage I felt calm, I felt like I could take over the world! (With OR without a Tank). I put everything I had into the song and it felt so good! I remember standing up after finishing and my cheeks were aching because I was smiling so much. Whether it was good enough was a different story, but I knew I had given it my all and THAT is what felt so good. And then the judges comments came. Please observe the illustration:

It sucked. I walked off the stage and couldn’t stop the tears from leaking out. I was trying my best not to cry but I couldn’t stop some of them from squeezing themselves out. Why did their comments get me so badly? Because I had felt the song, I had felt it so much and because I hadn’t made them feel it too I was disappointed with myself. Despite the Judges comments I got amazing feedback. The audience at Mosaiek seemed to like the performance and they boo-ed the Judges comments. After Sunday’s show I had many many messages telling me that they loved the performance.

Then came the results show on Tuesday and the viewers opinion was evident. I was safe. I was out of the bottom 3 and I was safe! So despite the judges not feeling my performance, a good portion of the voting public did. I can’t tell you how happy I was! And then the real twist came. Kelly was at the bottom. Her performance of Rock with You by Michael Jackson had received the least votes and she had to sing for her life. As contestants on the show we don’t only listen to what the judges said about us, we listened to what they said about everyone. We knew that if Kelly was ever at the bottom that the judges would save her, so I’m afraid it was no surprise to us when Gareth told them to stop the music. Several people, journo’s and fans alike, have asked both Dene’ and myself how we felt about Kelly getting saved and, I suppose, if we harboured any resentment. We have both kind of brushed this question aside for several different reasons. My first is that Kelly did not save herself. It was the judges choice to save her, she did not ask for it. My second reason is: what use are What If?‘s? Who’s to say what might have happened if they hadn’t saved her?

The week after Kelly’s save was Choir round. This is the one that I personally felt I was the least secure on. I didn’t know the song, I didn’t choose it. I’ve seen a lot of people discussing the circumstances of the choir round and the things I read made me very unhappy. There were people making fun of the choir, saying that they obviously chose songs that the choir knew and that’s why our choices were the way they were. There were people saying that some contestants obviously had preference because they had better songs than others. Here is what actually happened:

At the end of Sun City we were all asked to write down 2 choir song choices. If they were appropriate, 1 of our suggestions would be used. If neither were going to work they were going to choose for us. This is what happened to a couple of us. Our suggestions weren’t going to work. So essentially, we did choose our songs, but we chose badly so they chose better songs for us. Why? Because the choir had to learn the songs that we had chosen. I think, out of the 8 songs they had to perform for choir round, they new 2. And it takes time to learn 3-6 part harmonies.

So, I’m not going to go into it at length, but I was surprised that the judges liked my choir song so much. I think Randall was the most honest, saying that I couldn’t afford to have a bad week. I think that was him trying to say it wasn’t that great, but in a nice way…

Either way, it bombed. I knew as I was watching it along with the rest of the country that Sunday night, that I was more than likely going home. On Tuesday while we were getting ready for the show Dene’ and myself were chatting (the way we all do) and she asked me who I thought was going home. And I told her, very nicely, very calmly – I even said I wasn’t saying it to be mean, it was based on a gut feel and what I’d been reading on the social networks – that I thought it was going to her and myself going out tonight. I wasn’t really sure whether I should have said it or not but she took it like she knew it herself already. Usually when people asked me that I give them the “don’t worry, everything is going to be fine” speech. But Dene’ is my friend and like a younger sister and I wanted her to be ready, just in case. She is one of the most amazing people I have ever met and she better not forget to stay in touch otherwise I’m going to have to send her threatening letters in the mail!

Woooah! Excuse the lighting in this photo! It looked a lot better on my phone! Okay, so that’s all I’m going to give you for now!!! There will be more exciting tales of what I’ve been doing since I’ve been home (possibly before the end of the week even!) soon!

Thanks for reading! Love and cookies y’all!