Day 146 - lonely gold frond

Just the one earring today because it's the one I grabbed out of my pot first thing this morning and I have lost its partner. So I paired it with an ear cuff for interest's sake because I shan't forsake my poor earring just because it's single.

I don't know why I chose the word "lonely" when I was naming this pair earring. I mean, heck, I'm single (usually quite adamantly so) and I'm never lonely. So it's rather presumptuous of me to assume the earring is lonely. But perhaps it was the shape - it does look vaguely despondent the way it's hanging there with a bowed head and listless arms like a depressed Jack Skellington.

Day 145 - dreamcatchers

I had to check the blog before I wore these because I honestly couldn't remember if I'd worn them already or not. Well, they are the 145th pair so that's not entirely surprising I suppose! These have been around for ages and I'm actually quite impressed at the state they're in - they don't look as battered around as a lot of my other old stalwarts, even though I do wear them (well, wore them I suppose, since I can't now wear them again until the challenge is over) quite often because they have pretty colours.

Day 144 - flower triangles

Another Kenya pair today. And today is gross day! (By which I mean the number, not that it was a bad day in any way, because it wasn't.) I was very interested to learn today that the reason 12 as a base number was popular (as evidenced by the specialised terms dozen and gross to describe 12 and its square) was because you could easily count to 12 using your hand by touching each finger bone with your thumb.

Day 143 - gold and silver danglies

These are a pretty pair I bought from a shop in Nairobi called Accessorize with Style. I could have spent soooooo much money in that place. But I was good(ish) and limited myself to three pairs.

Day 142 - fun red

My earring enabler bought me these in Kenya. I love them: the shapes are fun and interesting. and, the colour is gorgeous. It even matches my hair:

We (by which I mean me and a couple of other people, not just me and my earrings. That would be weird) took a trip to Spice Route in Paarl on Saturday (where I've been numerous times before but I don't try new things: if it ain't broke, don't fix it). And I was introduced to my new favourite thing on the Internet at the moment:

Day 141 - purple stringy beads

These are a lovely, simple and light creation that I really like, They accompanied me to our dramatic society members' evening on Friday where we saw a hilarious one-act play called "Murder at Midnight" by Jeff Goode.

Day 140 - collections

I rather struggled with deciding what to name these. They don't lend themselves to being easily described in my mind. I've had these for ages and I don't know where I got them from but looking at them now, they remind me somewhat of my two Mr Price monstrosities. Who knows, they may very well have come from there too.

Day 139 - clinky blue leaves

More blue earrings! And, fittingly, a rather musical pair too. They make a lovely tinkly sound as I wander around, almost as good as my game reserve earrings (for more on those, stay tuned: I will be game reserving in September so they will be featured then).

Day 138 - Kenyan blue beads

A pretty pair, this, and an interesting colour: not sure whether to call them blue or purple. In thinking about blue and purple I wandered down a very interesting pathway through the Oxford English Dictionary just now and have learned that "purple" comes from a type of mollusc that yields a crimson dye and that "crimson" and "purple" used to refer to the same colour. It did not go on to say what purple was called in those synonymous years, which is disappointing.

Day 137 - Kenyan drums

A pair from Kenya. (Be warned, in case the smorgasbord of photos from the last few days was not enough of a hint, that there will be many pairs from Kenya posted in the next few weeks.)

I had to commute into and from town today because my company has moved office to the Foreshore and the notorious inner-city Cape Town wind had a field day with these. Yes, they're light, but damn they can pack a wallop!

Day 136 - tiny disco balls

Though I bought many, many pairs (and was bought even more) pairs of earrings while in Kenya, for my last day there I wore an old pair. These are very small, almost certainly gained as part of a set, but, as is hardly unusual, I can''t give you more precise details than that.

To spruce them up somewhat, I wore them both on one ear and on the other ear I wore a new acquisition from my earring enabler:

I've never really been an ear cuff kind of person but I now own a few (all bought for me by other people) and I think they may become a thing for me. What better way to enliven a smaller, less ostentatiously attention-seeking pair of earrings or find a way to still wear an earring whose fellow has been stolen by invisible earring elves in the middle of the night?

Day 135 - Mr Price monstrosities number 2

Another winning pair from Mr Price, almost as ridiculously overwrought as the first one. They were my decoration for my only full day in Nairobi, during which we tripped off to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage at Nairobi National Park. It's an incredible project and baby elephants are SO cute:

The guide's heartfelt explanation of the origin of each of the orphaned elephants had me in tears (which is not unusual for me, but still) and feeling guilty for being human even though I have never killed nor could ever kill a wild animal (aside from, you know, a mosquito). Their most recent baby ellie is named Simotua. His mother was killed by poachers and he has a spear wound on his head and his one foot is enormously swollen because he was caught in a snare. Poor baba.

(Side note: I have joined the Trust's awesome sponsorship programme and am now fostering Simotua so that he can be rehabilitated and released back into the wild.)

Day 134 - silver diamond designs

I haven't the faintest clue where these came from, but they're rather pretty I think. Anyway, since I'm in the middle of relating my Kenya trip experience, earring origin is really of secondary importance to what they witnessed, isn't it?

For our last day in Mombasa, we decided to check out some of the local wildlife after checking out of the hotel. So we taxied over to Haller Park, which is an old quarry site that was converted into a conservation area by naturalist René Haller in the 1970s.

I fed a rather beautiful specimen of a giraffe by the name of Henry:

Then we wandered around admiring the wildlife and the scenery, conscientiously obeying all the rules:

We had half a bottle of wine left over from dinner the night before so we took a moment out in the abandoned fish research area (they're building a new one), as you do:

Day 133 - Kenyan purple beads

These earrings I bought at the curio shop at the hotel and wore for our second day in Mombasa. We got up stupidly early for holiday to be at breakfast by 7:30 so we could board a glass-bottomed boat by 8:30 for tidal reasons. The boat took us into the coral reef conservation area to snorkel with the zebra fish and then with starfish and sea urchins. I didn't snorkel, but rather we climbed onto the boat's roof and admired the view.

We later got out of the boat for a bit of a reef walk among the anemones, sea spiders and seriously pretty sparkly seaweed.

After that exhausting experience, there was nothing for it but to head to our by-now regular spot for lunch: upstairs at the Mikokoni Bar at the hotel next door (Bahari Beach Hotel).

After that it was back to our hotel for a massage, a facial and a mani/pedi. Because spa.

Day 132 - Chinese brown thread

The other gift pair from China from my earring enabler. They look a bit beaten up because I was so cruel to them that I made them lie with me in an eternity pool overlooking the Mombasa coast at the Voyager Beach Resort. Such a hardship.

Day 131 - Chinatown disc and chains

A Chinatown rather than genuine China pair for my second day in Kilifi. Today we took a dhow called Keteng'ende (which means dragonfly):

We sailed down Kilifi creek to where it meets the ocean, stopped at the Mnarani Club for a drink or two or three (we're on holiday!) and then, after a quick nap on the houseboat, sailed the Keteng'ende up the creek into the mangrove reserve to watch the sunset. They even let me steer the boat, unwisely it turned out since I kept getting distracted:

For supper we went back to Mnarani Club and then were intending to take a taxi or tuktuk back to the boat yard. Instead, three bodas (motorcycle taxis) turned up and we went with them, Hanging onto the back of a stranger's motorbike, sans any safety equipment, as he plunged headlong down a pothole-ridden dirt road in the pitch dark is certainly an experience I won't forget in a hurry. I was convinced I was gonna die at least nine times. But I didn't, so more earrings will still be worn. Whew.

Day 130 - gold owls

Time for catch up blogging now as I recap a week of earrings in Kenya. This first pair was a gift from China from my earring enabler, who I was visiting in Kenya. They flew from Nairobi to Malindi in a little plane with a propellor, which we sat right next to. A rather scary sight:

From Malindi airport (which is so small it feels more like a bus stop than an airport), we took a taxi to Kilifi to spend a couple of nights on a houseboat, which is an experience I would recommend to anyone who wants somewhere to stay on the Kenyan coast. It's totally affordable (certainly in the off season, which is when we went, but that seemed to have no effect on the awesomeness of the weather and atmosphere) and so peaceful.

Day 129 - silver sparkly

These are a pretty pair and I've no idea where they're from. But that's really unimportant today because where they went to is much more interesting: Kenya!

Day 128 - light pink thread

I actually bought these to give to my mother because they're much more her colour and style than mine. I think I will still give them to her for that reason but I wore them today because I branched out and had a pink day.

I'm not usually a pink person but yesterday I got my hair done and the stylist put pink in it. Not a colour I would ever have chosen, but I let my stylist do to my hair whatever she thinks will be fun and funky. And that trust paid off, because the pink really does look great. A complete stranger even interrupted my conversation at the theatre last night to tell me so.

Then, while shopping yesterday I found a pink skirt that was on sale for 30 bucks, which is a price I couldn't resist. So I figure the universe was trying to tell me to have a pink day:

Day 127 - clinky silver diamonds

These are a relatively new acquisition, but I couldn't with any accuracy tell you from where. I can accurately tell you that they are VERY clinky. I don't think I've ever owned such a loud pair of earrings. Not that that's a problem, mind you. It meant the lack of radio in my friend's car on the drive home was not noticed - we had music from the waggling of my head!

Day 126 - dagga leaves

I'm not entirely sure why I have these. I never went through that teen or early twenties phase where everything has to be Rasta colours and there are dagga leaves on everything. Still, I end up wearing them quite often because they're pretty generic and go with everything since they're black. They're easy wearing too, being made of chipboard and so not very heavy.

Day 125 - black flakes

These were another pair I bought for myself when I was looking for earrings for someone else. The same time as when I bought my Barba mama earrings. I think I bought them in YDE, but I can't be certain.

They're heavier than they look, these, but the weight means they move quite nicely together when I walk and they definitely make a nice tinkling sound. I like them rather a lot.

Day 124 - black lacy hoops

Turns out, as I go through my collection, that there are many more hoops I own that are interesting enough to wear by themselves than I previously assumed. Once again, I should just stop assuming I actually know anything about the true size of my earring collection.

Looking at the pattern more closely on these, I am seeing little faces wearing goggles. At first glance it's possibly a frog. Or maybe it's Mr Toad (from The Wind in the Willows) as he putters around going "poop poop!" after discovering motor cars:

Or maybe it's a duck. Like Launchpad McQuack from DuckTales:

And now since I'm thinking about flying birds, I have to at least mention, if not tout, one of the most memorable short animated films I have ever seen. I dare you not to shed a tear:

Day 123 - silver bunches

A rather demure pair for Sunday. But since all they had to do was sit through a board (luckily, since the new chair took over, no longer a bored) meeting and then schloemf around the house reading and playing silly iPad games, glamour was not really an aim for the day.

I had an interesting little side distraction just now as I was deciding how best to spell "schloemf" (my other options were "schloemph", "schlumf" and "schlumph"): apparently a "Schlumf" is what a Smurf is called in German. Even more interesting (if you're like me and find etymology endlessly fascinating) is the fact that the word "Smurf" is the Dutch translation of the French word "Schtroumpf", which is what they're called in Belgium where the cartoonist is from. "Schtroumpf" is a word that the cartoonist made up one mealtime when he couldn't remember the word "salt"!

Sounds like something my family would come up with,

Day 122 - gold links

Saturday's pair: gold segmented shapes. Quite simple but quite striking too. And of course I have no idea where I got them. Possibly Woolworths, possibly Truworths, possibly no worths at all. I don't think it really matters in the grand scheme of things.

Day 121 - pink bangles

I think it's pretty clear from the picture, but these did not begin their lives as earrings. I think they were originally bangles, actually. I know I bought them from the Milnerton market, with the sole purpose of turning them into earrings. I think they work quite well. My sister says they look like bridesmaids' dresses: they are baggy, shapeless and dusky pink, which means as dresses they would look terrible on anyone, pretty much the definition of a bridesmaid's dress. But they work pretty darned well as earrings.

Day 120 - parrots

These were given to me by a friend who doesn't wear them any more. The same friend, in fact, who gave me the blue frilly pair from Day 102. They are, obviously, quite demure by my earring standards but they're very pretty and they're parrots, for goodness' sake. I can't help but smile whenever I think of parrots:

Day 119 - SA flags

A patriotic pair today. I think my mum bought me these from the Hout Bay flea market. I love the South African flag both because it's pretty to look at and for the sentimental patriotic reason. Despite problems in government and other areas of administration (admittedly many), I still think this is a great country and, given the choice, I don't think I would want to live anywhere else.

At the risk of being accused of being soppy: