I have had a few requests from indieBerries readers asking how The Warr and I met, so thought I would share this little (two part) story with you all.
Rhodes is well-known as the drinking capital of universities in South Africa and at the heart of this drinking-reputation lies the concept of the "formal-dinner". In fact this name is highly misleading since there is absolutely nothing formal about these dinners. I am guessing that "Formal Dinners" were devised by bored-male-housemates as an excuse to dress up, invite over select-females, fuel them with copious amounts of alcohol, throw in a few "exotic-party-games" and a meal (if you're lucky) in the hopes of securing aone-night girlfriend. Since these "formal dinners" were hosted by digs' -(student houses off campus), they usually involved an 'older-crowd' of people and to be invited to a Formal Dinner, especially if you were in your first or second year, was always a very exciting thing.
Formal Dinners always have a theme. In my time at Rhodes, I have been to -
Seaside Formals dressed as a fisherman
90's Formals dressed as Sister Act
Cowboys and Indians formals dressed as a Cowgirl
Casino Royale formals dressed as sassy-lady-gambler
Rumbling Jungle Formals dressed as an antelope
Valentines' Formals dressed "red-white, short & tight"
Child's play Formals dressed as a three year old
Movie Star Formals dressed as Tinkerbell
But the night I met my future-husband-to-be was at a Trailer Park Trash Formal, dressed as... Trailer Trash. The student digs hosting this formal dinner consisted of five guys. Their living room was "decorated" trailer park style with old newspapers, black bags, empty beer bottles, cardboard boxes and broken crates and doors. The housemates:
L-R: Murray, Greg, Warren, Malcolm (behind Warren) and Mitch.
Now the thing about Formal Dinners is that you are usually not told who your partner is until you arrive at the Formal Dinner and are seated next to "your date". It is usually the housemates who (secretly) invite a partner for each-other - so more often than not, everyone (apart from those who are already a dating-couple) are surprised at the dinner table.
I was invited by Murray Anderson Ogle, a Journalism and Media Studies student (specialising in photography) who was about two years ahead of me at Rhodes. Following from usual Formal Dinner Protocol, I assumed that since Murray was the one who had invited me, he would definitely not be my date since he would have invited me for one of his housemates. My girl-friends and I spent ages trying to figure out via processes of elimination who my date could be, but the sneaky digs had tricked us and each of the boys had invited their own date.... So I sat down at the Trailer Trash Dinner with my date, Muur.
Now as the festivities went on, everyone in the house became more and more intoxicated fun. My partner was actually having such a good time, that he ended up on the other end of the house semi-naked in the bathroom "sleeping off the fun".
During the 'dinner' part of the evening, I had been sitting between two very hungry boys - who had golf-balled me and secretly stolen my food while I was consuming my drink. (That's not very nice). Anyway... as you do when the night is getting late and you've been drinking and Greg and Muur have stolen your food, you go on a mission to find some feastings -
I snuck into the kitchen -
It didn't work really.
Fortunately Warren took pity on my grumbling tum
(ps. the photos you are about to see are very old and revolting. We don't really look like this now.)
Rhodes is well-known as the drinking capital of universities in South Africa and at the heart of this drinking-reputation lies the concept of the "formal-dinner". In fact this name is highly misleading since there is absolutely nothing formal about these dinners. I am guessing that "Formal Dinners" were devised by bored-male-housemates as an excuse to dress up, invite over select-females, fuel them with copious amounts of alcohol, throw in a few "exotic-party-games" and a meal (if you're lucky) in the hopes of securing a
Formal Dinners always have a theme. In my time at Rhodes, I have been to -
Seaside Formals dressed as a fisherman
90's Formals dressed as Sister Act
Cowboys and Indians formals dressed as a Cowgirl
Casino Royale formals dressed as sassy-lady-gambler
Rumbling Jungle Formals dressed as an antelope
Valentines' Formals dressed "red-white, short & tight"
Child's play Formals dressed as a three year old
Movie Star Formals dressed as Tinkerbell
But the night I met my future-husband-to-be was at a Trailer Park Trash Formal, dressed as... Trailer Trash. The student digs hosting this formal dinner consisted of five guys. Their living room was "decorated" trailer park style with old newspapers, black bags, empty beer bottles, cardboard boxes and broken crates and doors. The housemates:
L-R: Murray, Greg, Warren, Malcolm (behind Warren) and Mitch.
Now the thing about Formal Dinners is that you are usually not told who your partner is until you arrive at the Formal Dinner and are seated next to "your date". It is usually the housemates who (secretly) invite a partner for each-other - so more often than not, everyone (apart from those who are already a dating-couple) are surprised at the dinner table.
I was invited by Murray Anderson Ogle, a Journalism and Media Studies student (specialising in photography) who was about two years ahead of me at Rhodes. Following from usual Formal Dinner Protocol, I assumed that since Murray was the one who had invited me, he would definitely not be my date since he would have invited me for one of his housemates. My girl-friends and I spent ages trying to figure out via processes of elimination who my date could be, but the sneaky digs had tricked us and each of the boys had invited their own date.... So I sat down at the Trailer Trash Dinner with my date, Muur.
Warren on the other hand had invited his date... Kelly.
We don't know too much else about this Kelly Character.
that's fine by me.
The evening was fun as formal dinners usually are - we played some epic Trailer Park Games- including "golf-balling" (which means that if someone is sneaky enough to drop one of the golfballs lying on the table into your drink - you must consume its contents - the drink, not the golfball), Smartie-races and as you can see from the first pic - Murray and I had to feed each-other custard blindfolded. As you would at any normal formal dinner, right? right.
Along with the Trailer Park Trash Theme - The boys served KFC as their main meal.
(Above is Malcom [Bloggs] with the Kentucky Bucket...)
During the 'dinner' part of the evening, I had been sitting between two very hungry boys - who had golf-balled me and secretly stolen my food while I was consuming my drink. (That's not very nice). Anyway... as you do when the night is getting late and you've been drinking and Greg and Muur have stolen your food, you go on a mission to find some feastings -
I snuck into the kitchen -
I spotted a half empty box of extra KFC on the kitchen table and made a bee-line for it
- so incredibly delighted with my find!
I was just about to tuck into the familly size KFC box
I was just about to tuck into the familly size KFC box
when
I heard an angry voice from behind me -
It was Warren.
(We don't know what had happened to Warren's date at this stage of the evening.
Nevermind.)
Nevermind.)
Anyway he did not look very happy that I had snuck into his Kitchen.
um.....
I tried to hide.
It didn't work really.
Fortunately Warren took pity on my grumbling tum
So we stood awkwardly in drunken silence while we noshed greasy KFC chicken out the bucket.
It was one of those real romantic first encounter stories.
I knew there was something I liked about this guy
But anyway, his house, his chicken, his rules.
It really was
Warren also says this is where we had our first kiss
(I'm not convinced)
me + chicken = trailer trash
And so we had our first encounter
at a Trailer Trash Formal Dinner,
in the dirty digs kitchen,
over KFC
as someone else's date.
* * * Part Two coming soon * * *
30 comments :
Hahaha! Che you kill me. I remember that Kelly girl (kinda). The hearts in eyes after the tasting of the ice cream had me laughing out loud! Hope you enjoying London town. Kez xxx
Gotta love a good formal dinner! x
Dayam, UCT was nothing compared to this. Great story!
Winner, Winner, Greasy Cheekén Dinner! How totally romantic!
Aaaah ... Rhodes ... good times!
This is such a great story, definitely one for the grandkids:)
lol, this is amazing, though I am dubious of the ice cream and lemon juice.... The first time I met Thomas I was very drunk at a party too, I proceeded to tell him how gorgeous he was but at the time he had a girlfriend, oops, very awkward indeed, I must have made an impression though :)
Who would have though where a Rhodes drunken, greasy chicken,
kitchen dancing, trailer park trashing, lemon juice ice creaming night could lead...
It was fate - that joker Bloggs (and coincidentally the B.M.) decided it would be funny haha to give me the smallest piece of chicken in the bucket, yeah! Real funny!
BUT
It did mean I was left hungry...& it did lead me on to having the same great idea as little indieBerries. Well, clearly I wasn't happy that some chick had got there before me but she won me over with her pretty eyes, beautiful smile & willingness to try ice cream with lemon juice...and the rest is history :)
VIVA formal dinners VIVA late night kitchen encounters VIVA Bloggs & most of all VIVA indieBerries x
So cute and so flipping funny! Had a good Lol... for real and not just on the inside :)
the olympics, bollywood, chavs, alice in wonderland, rugby world cup and dress as the opposite sex... Digs formal nostalgia! had me thinking of Rhodes all day! great post
That "Kelly Character" happens to me my cousin! Bwwwaaahahhaaaa! I'm glad it worked out for you though. The cat that got the chicken.
haha :) no offense intended and im also VERY glad that she decided warra wasn't her cup of tea that night! :)
haha thank you! yes... sigh... the good ol days!
hahaha yay i love a good lol :)
hahhahaa -" all the best decisions in life are made while drunk" - you can quote me on that :)
hahaha totes romantic! we may even serve KFC at the wedding. lol
That Kelly character was my housemate :D
haha no hard feelings to The Kelly.. (but im glad i got the guy) ;P
Thoroughly useful article on Blogger: indieBerries.
Always keep publishing.
Stop by my page: Toenail Fungus
Do you mind if I quote a couple of your articles or blog posts as long
as I provide credit and sources returning to your weblog: http:
//www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=576654886223701005&postID=2027530563817028853.
Please let me know if this is okay with you. With thanks
Look at my homepage: Desktop Gadgets
Fantastic!!
Many thanks for your ideas on the blog post Blogger: indieBerries.
They are actually quite helpful... I enjoyed checking out your write up.
.
my webpage Stop Biting Nails
Good day.
I am wondering if you may be interested in doing a website link exchange?
I see your blog: http://www.blogger.com/comment.
g?blogID=576654886223701005&postID=2027530563817028853 and my website are based mostly around the same subject matter.
I'd love to switch links or perhaps guest author a article for you. Thank you so much.
my weblog; Best iPhone App
Hello!
Someone in my Myspace group shared this website with us
so I came to give it a look. I'm enjoying the content! Outstanding blog
Stop by my blog post; How to Golf App
Cool post.
Is your theme custom built or did you download it from somewhere?
A theme like yours with a few simple adjustments would really make my blog look more pro.
Please let me know!
Thanks
Visit my web blog ... Sleep Well Tonight
Wow! I'm really enjoying the layout of your weblog. Are you using a custom made template or is this readily available to all users? If you do not want to say the name of it out in the public, please make sure to contact me. I'd really enjoy to get my hands on this theme!
Thanks a lot.
Here is my web-site Tank Game Free Download
Amazing blog!
Is your theme custom built or did you download it from somewhere?
A design like yours with a few simple tweaks would really make my blog look more pro.
Please let me know!
Appreciate it
Have a look at my web-site iphone mileage
Also see my web site :: vehicle app
Superb post but I was wondering if you could write a little more on this topic?
I'd be very thankful if you could elaborate a little bit further. Appreciate it!
Here is my blog: get rid of nail fungus
Cutest story ever - and an awesome one to share :) x
I visited multiple web pages except the audio feature for audio songs present at this web
page is genuinely marvelous.
Here is my web site :: online graduate certificate programs
Howdy! You some kind of pro? Nice message. Are you able
to inform me methods to subscribe your weblog?
my webpage: having trouble getting pregnant at 40
Helpful info. Fortunate me I found your site unintentionally, and
I am surprised why this accident didn't took place in advance! I bookmarked it.
Feel free to surf to my web blog :: bmi calculator female
Post a Comment