Category Archives: Travel

Love, Travel

How I Met Your Father: the one where i said yes and got s*** done!

Leave a comment

7 September 2020, sometime in the middle of the godforsaken night…

“Oh God, I am never going to be able to leave this bed and walk again. I’ve been put on unpaid sick leave, my boss hates me and I am never going to walk again. I’ll never be able to finally resign and say fuck you to this energy sucking job. That means I’ll be broke, homeless, never travel again, never meet the father of my kids or ever have them. I’m nearly 35, trying to restart my life and I am going to die alone and really, what the fuck is the point of living anyway…”

Kids, the national lock down had seen me have a couple of breakdowns, most of which I shook off after a week and were helped by two hour- long phone calls with your aunt Lutfia, thousands of texts with your Wyrd godparents Leo and Tendai and your Nan’s epic cooking but fuck it, that endless night in September had me beat and was the first time in a very long time that I seriously considered just ending it all.

I scared myself.

I still don’t know how exactly I made it through the night but, to quote Two-Face:

I’d learnt from my previous depressive episodes: reaching out and letting the people who love you know you’re struggling and asking for help is the first step so that’s what I did. I told Leo and Tendai how bad it had gotten the night before and what was fucking me up big time.

A problem shared is a problem halved (or split in three in this case) and together, we worked on a plan on how to get me out of at least some of the shit I was in while I was on my six week forced unpaid sick leave.

Starting with …

A new job:

Gods, if I had to tell you the amount of jobs I applied for, the number of online interviews I attended and the hours and hours of freelance work pitches I did!

I hustled so hard in that month and a half at home and it paid off. Besides scoring a few freelance gigs and interviews in September and October and being reintroduced to my damn fine self (talking about my past achievements and career highlights really helped to remind me that I was incredible LONG before I’d become a mountain rock star and I was capable of everything and more that my nemesis had made me feel I was failing at); I clinched a really cool new role in a totally different sector.

I wasn’t going to be homeless or starve (at least not for another three months anyway) and if I was smart about it, I could travel again when the lock down and pandemic ended.

Speaking up for myself:

Even before securing a new gig, I was determined to resign from my current awe-inspiring role and not allow the bully, who had been making my life and injury recovery a living hell for 7 months, to dim my fucking light anymore. Enough was fucking enough!

But, oh, that sweet, sweet moment of justice, gratification and vengeance when I stopped her ,mid-rant about “the way things were going to work from now on” with my “I have a new job so I am resigning!” declaration…

The look on her face and the absolutely incredible feelings of relief, courage and closure flowing through my body were more than fucking worth it.

Saying yes:

While I had been slowly transforming into a female Howard Hughes in lock down and the injury had extended my couch life by a couple of months, I realised I did have to get out and about if I was going to socialize again. That meant saying yes to invitations from friends, occasionally venturing further than my backyard and agreeing to activities outside of my comfort zone.

2020 had forced everyone to hit the pause button on their lives but I was SO done waiting! Let’s do this, Baby!

Love, Travel

How I Met Your Father: the one with the year of yes!

7 Comments

Kids, in the Year 2020 of the Old Gods and New, I made a promise to myself to live a fearless, unapologetic Year of Yes.

2019 had seen me shed many tears over people and things unworthy of my awesome self but I was determined to live my best life, ahead of having you.

That meant saying:

Yes to the dress:

I committed to only wearing dresses, when I wasn’t in my mountain uniform, and f*** a white walker, was it getting me attention from the male species!

I got plenty of compliments, including a very hearty “Kan ek net se : jy lyk fokken sexy!” (May I just say that you look f***ing sexy!”)

I was embracing my femininity and loving it!

Yes to spontaneous outings:

From a Greekish day break to the West Coast with our family to shaking what your Nan gave me with your godmother Anthea and friends at a Micasa Kirstebosch Summer Sunset concert, I was all about living in the now in 2020.

Yes to new experiences:

I’d gone through a very rebellious phase in my teens which meant there were very few new experiences for me to have but that didn’t stop me from making the most of those that were available. Like, getting extra ear piercings, which your Nan didn’t approve of 😉

I had great plans for 2020, including jetting off to London to visit your Auntie Leilah, work remotely in Bail, frolicking in the New York snow with your Spirit Mom Leo, go horse riding on Noordhoek Beach, changing jobs and of course, meeting your father.

Let’s get living!

Cape Town Events, Cosplay, Travel

How I Met Your Father: The One with the FINAL Game of Thrones premiere EVER!

4 Comments

Kids, the night was dark and full of unexpected pleasures as your Spirit Mom Leonie and I made our way to M-Net’s final Game of Thrones premiere, held at Nu Metro Canal Walk on Monday 15 April 2019.

While Leo frightened the hell out of Capetonian streetwalkers and petrol garage attendants, dressed incredibly as the Night Queen; I paid homage to the Mother of Dragons’ s winter look:

A quick trip to our local Franky’s diner – a pre-Game of Thrones screening tradition for us since 2015 – was a must:

Bar a misunderstanding with the mall security about us gaining entrance to the parking …

and us threatening to go all Mad King on them:

Image credit: Tenor

…we finally arrived at the Long Night event we’d been waiting nearly two years for:

Walking the red carpet, posing for photos, laying some Game of Thrones home truths to eager journos made for a busy pre-screening morning:

Johnnie Walker was on hand to soothe ruffled nerves with their special Game of Thrones White Walker drink,a cool AF bar and Instagram photo spot:

The breakfast spread was a feast that the Starks would be proud of:

and definitely one that our Night Queen was keen on too:

As the media coverage continued, with even a front page feature, and we were totally blown away by the first episode, we basked in the afterglow of a Long Night to remember:

A HUGE thank you to Queen Portia of House M-Net for the invitation to the final Game of Thrones premiere. It is a memory that House Wyrd will treasure always!

Travel

How I Met Your Father: the one with the train trip to Elgin

3 Comments

Kids, 2019 was my Year of Yes – I was saying yes to new adventures, new places, new people and new experiences. I’d been wanting to try the Ceres Railway train to the Elgin Market and when your Uncle Moenier said he was keen to do it too, we booked tickets for the experience of a lifetime.

On a breezy Saturday morning in February, Moenier and I hopped on-board the luxury train coach, complete with suede covered couches, a dining cart, fully stocked bar and a steam engine at the station, opposite the Royal Yacht Club in Cape Town.

As we embarked on this thrilling steam engine train trip, we caught up over a quick breakfast in the dining cart and enjoyed the slowly diappearing views of Table Mountain:

Of course, because I am renowned for being the Capetonian version of Bridget Jones, I tumbled down the stairs of the train to take a photo of your Uncle Moenier and promptly sprained my ankle.

Luckily not the same one I’d hurt on that Gods-awful first OkCupid date that ended abruptly back in 2017.

I grinned and bore the pain so we could get this Harry Potter-inspired shot:

View this post on Instagram

Straight outta #hogwarts 😎

A post shared by Fazielah Williams (@fazielahwilliams) on

Since we were halfway to Elgin by then, I bore the pain for the next six hours but it was all worth it for this epic sight:

When we got to the Elgin Railway Market, it was easy to forget the pain of my ankle for a while as I took in the gorgeous sights, tastes and offerings:

However painful a journey it may have been, my train trip to Elgin was a great reminder that adventure is to be had anywhere , anytime, if we are just brave enough to take the leap.

2019 was an adventurous year indeed!

Travel

How I Met Your Father: the one where I fell in love with New York for the third time

Leave a comment

It was a cold November night and I was wandering through Times Square, having just sobbed my eyes out at a spectacular performance of the hit Broadway show Dear Evan Hansen…

View this post on Instagram

Reader warning: this is a deeply personal post so please stop reading if you don't want to catch feelings… Have you ever walked out of a theatre show with eyes so puffy from crying and a heart both so light from finally being seen and yet so deeply touched that you are emotionally f***ing spent? That's how I feel/felt about @dearevanhansen on Thursday 😭 I was Evan in high school… f***,I was Evan last week. I've vibrated at a different frequency all of my life and I still spend every single godamn day trying to be normal,to engage with people like I should. Last week,it took every single ounce of my limited energy to get out of bed,go to work,be a passable good co-worker,daughter,sister,niece,cousin,godmother and friend and not let anyone see how bad the darkness was… I sobbed uncontrollably from the beginning of #dearevanhansen and really ugly cried for the final song and scene because it hit so close to home… it's like the writers and cast took what was inside of me and put it on stage. Evan's mom in So Big/So Small and her promise to be there whenever she needs him …for me that person is my best friend Lutfia. I don't always reach out when the darkness gets bad because I try to "get over it" by myself (it's wrapped up in my control issues and i am trying to get better at asking for help).When I do let her in, Lutfia helps to make all of my overwhelmingly big anxieties small enough for two to manage and I am so very thankful to and for her❤ Much has been said about this show's production quality and really,it is f***ing outstanding but for me,its true strength is its emotional relevance. Dear Evan Hansen was a two year must-see Broadway dream in the making for me and I am so utterly glad I got to see it. #youwillbefound

A post shared by Fazielah Williams (@fazielahwilliams) on

I stopped, twirled around in a circle and took in my surroundings. Still feeling emotional after my sobfest and raw in a way I hadn’t been for years , I had a profound realization.

I was home. Home once again and I was impossibly, utterly, deeply in love with New York City.

For the third time.

This trip, my first one to New York shared with someone I loved, your godmom Leonie, was hands down my best. I loved solo travel, and I would soon venture off on another trip by myself, but a shared experience brought with it a sense of happiness, comedic moments of getting lost, frustation at losing each other at busy events, transcendent moments at a magical theatre show unlike any other we’d seen, discovering new places and showing each other our favourite spots.

Sharing New York with someone who adored it as much as I do, possibly even more so, made me love it on a deeper level.

View this post on Instagram

2018 was a year of many "WTF,Universe?!" moments but it also included the realization of a friendship goal my Wyrd Sister @leoniemollentze and I have had since nearly the moment we met four years ago : a magical Girls' Trip to #NewYork ,the city we both love so much❤ We didn't find Samir,the magic coin thief but we got lost,we explored,we got tired,we went to Hogwarts,we stalked an international magician,we walked Brooklyn Bridge together,we rocked the #Nyhalloweenparade, we had cannolis,we fangirled Dexter,she ran the #NYCMarathon, I did the ugly cry at #dearevanhansen, we survived 25 hours of flying home together and we're still hanging out …if that isn't @housewyrd Sister love,I don't know what is! Thank you,Leo and the Big Apple for being the highlight of my year!

A post shared by Fazielah Williams (@fazielahwilliams) on

Even if I never returned to the Big Apple in my life (Gods, I hope not! I still wanted to live my best upcoming writer and Brooklyn-living mom life there!), I was content to have loved this beautiful city and be a part of it at least thrice in my life.

To have arrived and known I was home.

I love you, New York City. Always.

Travel

How I Met Your Father: The One where we found magic in New York

1 Comment

Kids, in 2018, your Spirit Mom Leo and I took that much anticipated Girls’Trip to New York and it was magical…

No, literally.

Everything we did, without actually intending for it to be that way, ended up with a magical twist.

We started Magic Day (and Halloween) on 31 October with a visit to Fantasma to admire the Houdini artefacts , replace our stolen magic coin ( long story short, I’d left a coin I’d bought in Las Vegas with a hotdog seller  in New York in 2014 for Leo to collect but then he ran off with it – the audacity!)   with two new ones and get a visual magic effect for Leo to perform on Times Square:

On our way to the 2018 Village Halloween Parade, we found the amazing Fantastic Beasts #LivetheMagic mural:

Our first Broadway show together was the utterly incredible Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Pts 1 and 2:

View this post on Instagram

I'm on a serious theatre binge in #NewYork right now and it all started with #harrypotterandthecursedchildnyc …😍 Amazing,magical,incredible…those don't even BEGIN to describe it and I could try to express how utterly wonderful this production is but for the first time, as a writer,the words escape me. I will say this: I've never wanted to be a Hogwarts student more or been more willing to give up my day job and full salary to be a poor stagehand or usher just to be a part of the magic❤ (And yes,theatre goers in the Big Apple cosplay the hell out of their shows so obviously @leoniemollentze and I followed suit …I'll say it again: I have found my tribe and home!) #KeepTheSecrets

A post shared by Fazielah Williams (@fazielahwilliams) on

Even the Fantastic Beasts marketing team got in on our magical adventures with this epic request:

We followed this enchanting experience up with a visit to the epic Brooklyn Bridge and a photo opp with our magic coins:

View this post on Instagram

A magic coin for a magical bridge ❤ #TravelTuesday

A post shared by Fazielah Williams (@fazielahwilliams) on

A magical stalking opportunity arises …

After a whirlwind week of exploring the city of our hearts together, Leo and I were shuffling through the tedious security queue at JFK at 6h30am when your godmom let out a huge “OH MY GOD!”

Me: “What? What’s happening? Who do I need to beat up?” ( sidebar: your Aunt Sam says I have anger issues and I am always ready to beat people out… not true… I am just not much of a morning person!)

Leo: “It’s David Copperfield! That’s him!”

Kids, I’d like to tell you that your godmom and I kept our ladies of magic cool in this moment but… come on, this is us! We were magic fangirling so hard that EVERY time David passed by behind us in the queue, we’d be giggling and hyperventilating.

We agreed that we’d let the poor man pass through security and then grab him for a magical selfie.

Of course, David vanished in a blink of an eye (ha ha!) and despite us going so far as to walk all over the domestic terminal searching for him, we had to give up the magical stalking eventually and make our way back home.

Leo tweeted our regrets to the magic man and he LIKED it:

My loves, allow me to get emotional here for a second: the biggest lesson I learnt on this incredible trip to New York is that there is no greater gift than sharing the magic of travel with someone you love. I cannot thank your godmom enough for one of the best trips of my life!

Travel

How I Met Your Father: the one where I went to Comic Con Africa

1 Comment

Kids, there comes a time in every superheroine’s life when she needs to step things up, to soar into an unknown stratosphere. For me, it was attending the very first Comic Con Africa in Johannesburg on Friday 14 September 2018.

I could wax lyrical for ages and ages about my experience but let me rather share the message I sent to your Spirt Mom Leonie and godfather Tendai about it instead:

“Arriving there this morning was like a treasure hunt on steroids ( because the Uber drop-off zone was k** far from the entrance and I had to work through an actual tunnel to get to the building). 

After getting my media tag and the WiFi password, it was off to the main stage for the opening.

And the minute I walked through the single door to the main floor… damn, that high is hard to describe.

It’s Christmas morning, mixed with seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time, mixed with the first time you hear the Game of Thrones theme song in the first episode of a new season.

This… this is what I have been waiting for my entire geek like. It was Heaven!”

I’ll let the videos and images below speak for themselves but trust me when I say I fell in love and I fell hard for Comic Con Africa that first day. It’s totally the reason why you guys, your Dad, your Nan and godfather Leon attend it with me to this day:

I came.I saw.I Comic Conned 😎In what can only be described as the culmination of all of my comicbook heiress and geek…

Posted by Fazielah Williams on Saturday, September 15, 2018

Cape Town Events, Travel

How I Met Your Father: the one with the Zombie Walk Cape Town 2017

1 Comment

Kids, as you know Halloween is my absolute favourite holiday of the year… not least of all because it is when the undead rise in the Mother City for the annual Zombie Walk Cape Town event!

My zombie personality had been everything from a cheerleader to a nurse to a bride so what to go as in 2017? Well…

1990…

I was a precocious  five-year-old who a) was convinced that big school would be like an episode out of the Wonder Years and b) was determined to be a police woman.

Never mind the fact that this was pre-1994 South Africa and women, let alone women of colour, were not allowed to be officers of the law.

Your Grandpa, though, liked to encourage my big dreams and, in addition to getting me a toy cop police set with handcuffs and a baton, let me tag along on his early evening neighbourhood watch patrols. Man, were those exciting times!

Fast forward to 27 years later, and with a little help from your godfather Leon, and I was ready to embrace my inner Zombie Cop:

20171028_173600-01

My more-than-willing rocker zombie prisoner was your aunt Lee-Anne and damn, was she dead hot:

View this post on Instagram

About to get our #ZombieWalkCT on😨🙌

A post shared by Fazielah Williams (@fazielahwilliams) on

Our Night of the Living Dead took us along through the Company’s Garden, along St George’s Mall, Thibault Square and to a party that would never end at Madison Avenue Cape Town.

Here are a few drop dead awesome posts of the Zombie Walk Cape Town 2017:

Love, Travel

How I Met Your Father: CT Girl in Argentina

3 Comments

Kids, in September 2017,my wandering heart (and very busy working body – wait… not like THAT!) found its way to the sensual and vibrant Buenos Aires, Argentina.

tango argentina

Resting place of Evita, home to the empanada, the Japanese Botanical Garden and… tango!

As I mentioned before, this was a business trip so there wasn’t much time for exploring but I was determined to do some sightseeing and explore the city’s exotic cultural offerings.

Here’s what I learnt in Buenos Aires:

Be passionate about everything:

The Argentines ooze passion in everything they do: how they love, fight, work and dance!

View this post on Instagram

Tango in Argentina 😍

A post shared by Fazielah Williams (@fazielahwilliams) on

It’s actually quite intoxicating. So much so, that when it is time to leave their beautiful city, one really does want to say “Don’t cry for me, Argentina!” :

 

Be in the pursuit of magic always:

I’ve seen jaw-dropping magic shows in Las Vegas and New York so I was quite keen to see one in South America. As my journey came to an end, time constraints were real and it didn’t seem like I was going to find my taste of magic in Buenos Aires.

Until…

During a night out at the Tango Porteno, in the middle of a tango extravaganza, female magician  Inga Savitskaya appeared and dazzled us with her Invisible Partner act. Lesson learnt: always be in the pursuit of magic!

 

Embrace your sensuality:

From shamelessly indulging in dulce de leche, the sweet caramel treat Argentina is famous for , to giving into the erotic tension of a tango show, the Argentians are decadent, hungry and sensual beings.

After watching the intensity of dancers on a lunch time wander through La Bocca, a colourful downtown neighbourhood, I wandered down the cobbled streets of Galerías Pacífico .There, the most handsome, well-built men made a point of stopping what they were doing to openly stare and appreciate the sight of me.

Bearing in mind that I was in work travel mode and didn’t do anything fancy to my appearance, other than tie my hair up in a braid, I was equally flustered and flattered at the same time.

Far from being creepy, these men’s visible appreciation of me made me rediscover my sensuality. I made a promise to myself then that from that moment on I was going to embrace my inner sensual self by wearing sexy underwear and make-up and styling my hair everyday. Not for any guy but for myself – to celebrate the strong, independent, creative, free-spirited, beautiful, sensual, world traveller and woman I was.

To paraphrase your uncle Herman, I was in the prime of my life and I should be out in the world, swinging from the chandeliers ( or at least taking life by the horns!).

And I did, Kids, I really did:

Faz sensual 2

 

 

Travel

How I Met Your Father : CT Girl in Brazil

2 Comments

Kids,in September 2017,I had the opportunity to travel to South America for work and it was epic!

Being a New York girl at heart with Paris,London and Bali on my immediate bucket list,South America wasn’t really on my radar until this business trip came up but boy,am I glad it did 🙂

Travel roadshows are four days of back to back presentations and meetings but I managed to sneak out for a bit of sightseeing in my first city,Curitiba where :

Wonder Woman reigns supreme

20170911_102838

I nearly went nuts at the sight of this cute onesie at the local mall!

I’d have bought it there and then but you guys were still at least two years away from being born so sanity prevailed!

Fairytale palaces really exist

20170911_123306

In the heart of Javim Botanical Gardens lies this picture perfect palace of a greenhouse and I fell deeply in love…

The Garden itself is beautiful and reminiscent of Central Park. I loved how locals and tourists alike roamed about and enjoyed the scenery, even during a work day!

Street art is love

My must-haves for cities I travel to are simple: food, magic, theatre shows and street art.

In Curitiba, street art is everywhere you go and this one was by far my favourite.

A relaxed vibe permeates everything in Curitiba – from the unhurried way people speak to their late meal times and more. I was learning to love this laidback way of life and I was sure I’d be back for more.

Next on How I Met Your Father: A fiery love affair with Sao Paulo!