"Please hold, we will attend to you at the next..." *TOOT*

The entire day today, I've been battling government bureaucracy. I'm trying to be a good little citizen, filing my income tax before the deadline, and to my delight and surprise - South Africa has electronic filing of taxes available!

...except when it's working of course.

So I filed my taxes way back in December, then got an email notice a few weeks later saying they required "more supporting documentation". This is what the notice said:


Like er... OK, what EXACTLY do they need from me? I can't believe they didn't specify this and sent out a super generic notice. Pretty inefficient, don't you think? If I send them the wrong thing back, it'll be back and forth like a tennis game. And anyway, as far as I understood, the IRP5 and ITR3 forms are handed in by the company you work for and I don't have any medical or annuity funds like they suggested... so... WHAT?!

I tried calling the Call Centre helpline, and it's such a joke... an automated voice comes on asking you to press for certain options... so I pressed my way through "income tax"... "speak with operator"... and then the line just hangs up on me. ?!?? So I tried again. And the same thing happened again. ?!??

Okaaaaay... very weird. So then I tried to press for other options, since eventually all options usually lead back to an operator or agent of sorts. Again, after getting to a certain point, the line suddenly hangs up and goes to an engaged tone. This time it was more like ?!?? #$&^!%&$(@ ?!??

I honestly tried this at least 5 times before finally getting to an option which said "please stay on the line, an agent will be with you shortly", SUCCESS! ...Then the on-hold music comes on. ...it played for about 30 seconds, and then I kid you not... the entire line just went dead and went to an engaged dial tone.

?!??? #(*%^@#^%%&@ ?!???# !!!???#$&@^$)%(@&

These guys REALLY don't want to be contacted!

Ever the persistent person I am, I went through the same process all over again, pressing for the magical options that led me to the on-hold music, just in case it happened to be a dodgy phone connection or something, giving them the benefit of the doubt... and yet again, I got up until the on-hold music. Never have I been so pleased to hear "Greensleeves" playing on the other line... and of course you know what happens by now. Yes, I got cut off again in mid-song and got that dead, engaged dial tone.

OK, never mind, this is Africa (to quote Leo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond "T.I.A.")

I figured I would just re-submit everything all over again, from IRP5 forms, bank statements and the like - they could have it all since I had no idea what they wanted!

So then I tried uploading my files onto my e-filing page since the letter said I could also do that. But funnily, while I could upload the file on the site, no where does it say "Submit" or confirm that SARS (South African Revenue Services) has received it.


I got so fed up that I went oldskool and decided to just snail mail everything by registered mail. I can't remember the last time I walked into a post office to do something like that. Feels so archaic!

So... to SARS: "A" for effort, "F" for execution. Boo for wasting my entire day!

Tourist Infestation

Cape Town's a beautiful place.

It has been named Africa’s Best City (US Travel and Leisure Best in the World Awards, July); Best Travel Destination in Africa and the Middle East (US Travel & Leisure magazine, 2004 through 2007); and One of the World’s five Bluest Sky Destinations (expedia.co.uk). In addition, City Mayors, a global local government think-tank, recently named Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille the world’s top mayor... read about it here. I'd even rank it in my Top 10 list of most beautiful cities in the world.

Hence, it's no surprise that in the height of tourist season (which is: NOW), this place is crawling with people from out of town. In the lead up to the Christmas/ New Year break, traffic starts getting more jammed, malls start becoming more crowded, finding parking and a spot on the beach become non-existent. Suddenly, people pop up everywhere dressed extremely badly: in nothing but their swimsuits, mismatched bermudas and loud floral shirts, with those hideous hiking sandals. Y'know, like these ones:


What really gets on my nerves are the extremely BAD drivers around town around this time of year. You know you've become one of the locals when you start checking out other people's licence plates, tut-tutting and shaking your head at them when you find out they're not CA plates and they've behaved badly on the roads.

This is good:


These are no good. Especially if you don't give way, cut into other people's lanes without signalling, don't wave to say "Thanks" when you've been given way to, double-park Cape-Townians into their lots, drive like a tortoise or drive like an a**hole:

Northern Province:

Eastern Cape:

Kwazulu-Natal:


...and the ultimate biggest culprits of super bad behaviour on the roads generally tend to be the guys from Jo'burg. Unfortunately, the majority of big city boys with GP licence plates tend to be the worse drivers. There's a reason why the running joke is GP stands for "Gangsta's Paradise".


OK, I've had my rant. I can't wait till tourist season is OVER!

www.jaimetan.com goes Live!

For the past 2 days, I've been beavering away on a personal project. I got completely sucked into a vortex of website building technicalities like SEOs, CNAME register, MX records, Sitemaps (that's Sitemaps with a capital "S") and the like... and when I say vortex, I really mean VORTEX. I was going to bed at 4.30am dreaming of the website, and waking up 4 hours later at 8.30am dreaming of the website again. I think I even picked up dreaming of the same point on the website where I left off before I fell asleep! (I vortexed to the point where I completely ignored this blog too!)

The result is something I'm pretty proud of: my very own website with my very own domain name! This is what the home page looks like:


Yes, it's something for work and an attempt to look more professional. I decided it was finally time to dedicate a place to put my work online, and come up with a site for my showreel. And yes, it's also a case of extreme vanity and shouting out to the world "THIS IS ME! HIRE ME!". What I also found while going through this process is it's good to take some time out and go through the stuff you've done before - it helps you check in with yourself, gauge where you were before and where you are now... like a yardstick of sorts.

Right now, I'm pretty pleased with myself. And it's not about my work, it's more because I can't believe I actually came up with the entire site on my own!

OK, so I got a free design template and didn't have to design it from scratch, but it still took a while finding out where to get it from and where to host it and lots of other super boring tech details I'll spare you from. But check it out and let me know what you think!

The site is here: www.jaimetan.com

Lemon Pancake Total Failure

I woke up this morning feeling like lemon pancakes. I'm also not a natural cook. Together, this had DISASTER written all over it.

Once again, it was Google to the rescue and I found this delicious-looking recipe off the net.
(Email subscribers click on the download link to view the video)


I'd found it yonks ago when I was trying to figure out how to "fold egg whites" and saved the link coz his pancakes looked so yummy. Plus, he made it look so easy. Since I also had some super-ripe bananas, I figured I'd add them to the pancakes too, for added sugar and flavour. I substituted brown rice flour for regular flour, and xylitol for sugar.

I think the first mistake was that my batter didn't quite look as smooth as his.


Coz I was in a hurry to get to stiffening my egg whites, I forgot about the texture of the batter. Oops. Good thing is, because of all this yoga and adjusting I've been giving, I've built up pretty strong arm muscles and was able to finally get stiff egg whites in about 5 minutes by HAND BEATING them.

It was only when I got to slopping the batter onto the frying pan that I realized "eh? isn't pancake batter supposed to be kinda runny?!"

(The yellow bits are the bananas I'd placed in the middle of the pancakes. Which is why it turned out quite thick too)

No bubbles appeared, like how Chef Mitzewich explained above. So I just flipped the pancake when it seemed long enough on the one side. It didn't turn out too badly.


The trouble started after I flipped it. Firstly, it didn't rise as beautifully as Chef Mitzewich's pancake. In fact, it didn't rise AT ALL. Then secondly, the banana bits that were sticking out of the pancake on the underside started sizzling. I started to smell them burning a bit, then decided to flip the pancake around again to check... and the whole underside disintegrated coz it hadn't been cooked properly yet and was still sticking to the pan.

On top of this, the banana bits were BLACK and BURNT, so I quickly dug them out of the pancake in an attempt to salvage whatever was left.


This is what the underside looked like with the bananas dug out... the first pot-holed pancake I made:


So then I decided "OK, don't put the bananas in the pancakes. Just grill them on the side" (I was trying to copy Bill's Cafe in Sydney - they've got bananas in their ricotta hotcakes and the entire thing is just heavenly).

And the second pancake turned out kinda thick as well, but at least wasn't pot-holed and didn't quite burn like the first one. By this time, the frying pan was sooooo hot that the bananas just sizzled and immediately started browning.


That doesn't look too bad. But the taste was a whole different story. Kelly dug in hungrily since it had been about an hour since I started my pancake attempt... but for some reason, the super-sweet, super ripe bananas ended up SUPER BITTER, and the whole thing was just unappetizing altogether.

I'm still trying to figure out where the heck the bitter aftertaste came from... my theory is the frying pan was just too hot from being on the fire for so long after so many attempts, and you're not supposed to be cooking in a non-stick pan on high heat coz it gets noxious and carcinogenic. Maybe it was the teflon? (Sic!)

We spat everything out, trashed the rest of the batter and ended up going out for breakfast.

My delicious Yup Wrap from Buzz with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon was waaaaaay better than the failed lemon-banana pancakes.

Happy New Year!

I'm still recovering from the super late night we had last night. No, I didn't drink (last time I checked, I'm still allergic to alcohol). But still stayed out till about 3.30am last night. (For a girl who usually goes to bed at 10.30pm and wakes up at 7am, that's late).

Couple of Kelly's friends own one of Cape Town's trendiest and popular bars, Asoka. They'd reserved a cosy area by the outdoor deck for us to hang out all night.

Put on my (new) dancing shoes for the occasion. I can't wear heels, so wedges are the next closest thing to heels I can manage.


For some reason, we got there pretty early at 8pm and it was still light outside.


Dunno what it is about New Year's... maybe I'm getting old or maybe it's coz I don't drink, but to be completely honest, I'd rather have been at home reading my Christmas present, Skinny Bitch. OK, maybe I'm just becoming a complete bore.

Anyways, it was kinda cool coz Kelly's bunch of friends from waaaaaaay back when, most of whom are living all over the world now, were home for the hols and I finally got to meet the people I'd only heard about in his stories of growing up.




(Check my pink bag that matches the pink shoes) :)

The perfect Blue Steels:


On a tangent, someone recently commented that practically ALL the photos of me on Facebook are of me with my Zoolander Blue Steel face. But I have never, ever uploaded a picture of myself on Facebook, and for some reason, other people just seem to love my Blue Steels and that's all they ever upload!!!! So there.

Anyhow, here we are stumbling around last night, wishing you a Happy New Year - 2009's gonna be a goodie! xxx

Teaching Frenzy

This week is when practically everyone's on holiday (me included!) and it's when I start substitute teaching yoga classes. I'll be teaching from Monday through Wednesday at 9am, and this Saturday, I start my first REGULAR TEACHING GIG! Yup, I've been offered a regular 9am slot at Shanti on Saturday. Did I forget to mention it before?

Plus this evening, I was also substituting for another teacher who does classes at a hotel. So including Shanti's class this morning, I would've taught 2 classes today except the hotel guests/ tourists were probably in complete holiday mode and no one pitched up to class this evening!

It didn't really matter though, the garden where classes are taught is just spectacular, and I ended up doing a self-practice instead. It's weird doing a headstand on grass - kinda feels unstable and like you're gonna fall over!


Right in front of where the mats are placed is where a "river" flows through the hotel grounds. It's more like a glorified drain, but since it doesn't stink maybe it's really a fresh(ish) water source of sorts. There's also a little bridge to cross from one part of the hotel to the next. Very pretty!


The "river" is slightly stepped, and there's a mini waterfall as well, so you're completely surrounded by nature from the gurgling water sounds to the birds tweeting in the trees.

The light on the pictures above was a little off. This is more like what it looks like. So even though no one pitched this evening, I still had a pretty spectacular practice. :)