Monday, July 9, 2012

How we met...

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.

(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 one-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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Along with the Trailer Park Trash Theme - The boys served KFC as their main meal. 
(Above is Malcom [Bloggs] with the Kentucky Bucket...)

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 -
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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 
when

I heard an angry voice from behind me - 
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It was Warren.

(We don't know what had happened to Warren's date at this stage of the evening.
Nevermind.)

Anyway he did not look very happy that I had snuck into his Kitchen.
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um.....

I tried to hide.

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It didn't work really.

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boys - they love their chicken.Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket 

Fortunately Warren took pity on my grumbling tum

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share?
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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.
Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket 

I knew there was something I liked about this guy
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no guy.
Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket 
But anyway, his house, his chicken, his rules.
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It really was

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Warren also says this is where we had our first kiss
(I'm not convinced)

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me + chicken = trailer trash

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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 :

Keri le Roux said...

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

Andrea said...

Gotta love a good formal dinner! x

GeeGee said...

Dayam, UCT was nothing compared to this. Great story!

A Daft Scots Lass said...

Winner, Winner, Greasy Cheekén Dinner! How totally romantic!

Melissa said...

Aaaah ... Rhodes ... good times!

This is such a great story, definitely one for the grandkids:)

Rhianne said...

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 :)

the Warr said...

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

Monique said...

So cute and so flipping funny! Had a good Lol... for real and not just on the inside :)

Caitlin Bookless said...

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

Jade Adami said...

That "Kelly Character" happens to me my cousin! Bwwwaaahahhaaaa! I'm glad it worked out for you though. The cat that got the chicken.

Che Kershaw said...

haha :) no offense intended and im also VERY glad that she decided warra wasn't her cup of tea that night! :)

Che Kershaw said...

haha thank you! yes... sigh... the good ol days!

Che Kershaw said...

hahaha yay i love a good lol :)

Che Kershaw said...

hahhahaa -" all the best decisions in life are made while drunk" - you can quote me on that :)

Che Kershaw said...

hahaha totes romantic! we may even serve KFC at the wedding. lol

middleclassconcerns said...

That Kelly character was my housemate :D

Che Kershaw said...

haha no hard feelings to The Kelly.. (but im glad i got the guy) ;P

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