It's about time...

Yes, remember this?

Don't worry. I haven't forgotten. 

I have merely been in vocal training...

until my singing coach shattered from me pitch-matching to his frequency.

I present you with... My finest work:

(and my sincerest apologies)

The Lovely Lyrics:

At first I was afraid,

I was petrified,

Kept thinking my blog could never win

against ELLE Design

And then the people voted

and now my blog is King,

so I must put on my winning shades

Compose a song 

and sing.....

So I suck at singing

and with that being sad,

I even changed my nose-ring

tryin' to boost my street-cred.

The awards were awesome

and I had a great time

At the One and Only,

Man! that place is divine.

It was organised,

professional

and things ran on time,

We had snacks and Mojitos

and WAY too much wine.

In fact I'm really quite glad 

I didn't fall down the stairs

and that I left before Nash

and his g-string affairs...

So, I came from South Korea,

was a HECTIC long ride

and (thumbs) to Marky Mark - 

who came from the PharSide.

Mum-z was the MC - 

made us laugh the whole night,

so I just wanna thank him,

now my abs are freaking tight.

2 Oceans sent a rep - 

and DAMN! she was hot,

brother fancied his chances...

but EiSH! 

I think not.

Cape Town Girl 

looked super-glam,

then they pulled a blank card,

... I think it was a scam.

Helen Zille came down

and she gave a great speech

about facebook and blogging

and the things that she tweets.

As I'm walking to the stage

mom hisses "DON'T do the peace sign!"

then I pulled it TWICE-

.... I'm from Asia, 

It's fine.

Best blog overall went to WatKykJy

... I don't have a rhyme for this

"ek praat nie die taal"

Thanks to the sponsors 

for giving us free stuff

esp to Havana Club Rum,

cause I woke up pretty rough.

A big thanks to YOU

if you voted for my blog,

It means a lot to me

and my non-existant dog.

This is my song to say

THANK - YOU!

for supporting and 

for voting and for

digging what i do.

* the end *

Featured

indieBerries featured at #14 in the South African Cosmopolitan as Hot Blog January 2011:

oh little indieBerries, you make mommy so proud.

ps...

I just wanted to say - anyone who thought I had forgotten about this:

(unfortunately for your ears) I have not forgotten about this... 

I am just busy working on my own lyrics. (yeah, that's right)
it's a little gratitude song about the blog awards, so far  Mumz, Cape Town Girl, the PharSide, 2Oceansvibe, Bangers and Nash and The One and Only have all gotten a mention.

I hope to record my singing-sensation sometime this week. I do truly pity your ears. I am sorry.

shew!

I just finished the AWESOME-highly-interactive-super-innovative-probably-first-of-it's-kind-live-international-cartoon-interview with The Witness Newspaper in South Africa. This is how it ended...
Neighbour and her boyfriend walk into my room...

This interview was so awesome, especially considering its 'dynamic/multimedia-interactiveness' (and also rather stressful (and exhausting) considering I had no idea of any of the questions they were going to ask before they posted them!) Hope it was satisfactory to those who participated! :) i had a lot of fun doing it! a HUGE thanks to Jerusha and Ryan from The Witness Online for making such an innovative and forward-thinking interview such a fabulous success!

If you didn't get to see the interview live, you can catch it here. :)

and for now.... Goodnight South Africa!!

in the news...

This was in The Witness,  South African Newspaper today... talking about the "live-ish cartoon-blog" interview I'm doing later today.

You can follow the cartoon interview at 1pm South African Time, 8pm Korean time, Here

should be fun and we'd love for you to get involved ;)

Witness this!

WHATS IN THE MYSTERY BOX? 
The Witness Newspaper - (A South African Newspaper based in KwaZulu Natal) wanted to interview me about my blog and the blog awards. Since the editors of The Witness refused to fly them to South Korea to interview me (highly unreasonable in my opinion.) They wanted a new/innovative way to do this interview. And here it is:

Click over to the indieBerries interview with The Witness to watch the chaos unfold...

(ps. i have no idea of any of the questions they are going to throw out-should be fun.) 

haha.

The blog awards in pictures...

The Blog awards - held at the One and Only in Cape Town (see above: very fancy.) have come and gone, but i have received a number of emails asking for more pictures of the night and more details about what happened. Since there are a hosts of pictures now up on facebook. I decided to share...

Me and big little-brother at the Ogilvy PreDrinks

My happy family - who flew all the way down to Cape Town to attend the awards :)
thank you happy family.

Super-talented funny-man-MC Mr Mamello Mokoena (aka Mum-z)

Mum-z: Why are there very few Xhosa blogs?
There are not enough mouse clicks.

(something like that. it was funny :) ) 

Someone who also travelled pretty phar (London-far) to attend the awards - 

Mr Marky-Mark Warren of the PharSide accepting Best Overseas Blog

indieBerries Accepting Best Personal Blog Award from Dave Duarte partner in Huddlemind - online collaboration business and director of the Ogilvy Digital marketing academy.

...even got Dave to pull the peace sign! yay me!

and go Dave!

Accepting the Havana Club Rum Best Design Blog with JP Naude - CEO of Strategic Media Solutions and The SA Blog Awards and Rob Southworth - Havana Club Rum brand manager.

Priscilla Daniel, Alex van Tonder and Leigh-Anne Jenkins of Cape Town Girl.

Hellen Zille, Premier of the Western Cape and Leader of South Africa's opposition party, being interviewed by "herself" courtesy of ZAnews - winner of Best South African Video Blog.

You can see the full interview at the blog awards here. gotta love the media.

Hellen, (who is also the first South African to have a verified twitter account) gave a very empowering speech on the impact of social media. Everyone really appreciated her time and words.

Thank you.

Pratish Mistry, with JP Naude and Hellen Zille, accepting blog award for Best Political Blog - Wonkie

Liny Kruger accepting award for 2010 Blog of the year - Watkykjy

Organisers of the event with Hellen Zille: Chris Rawlinson and Dave Duarte of Huddlemind, Hellen Zille and JP Naude.
Thank you all for a very successful evening!

Other fun pics...

The following picture has been edited, because the original was too horrific:

mom, dad and indieBerries

(i have no further comment)

me and the mom showing some love.

The afterparty begins...

(me demonstrating how to drink, i think.)

Note protective brother in background acting as very tough bodyguard. (read: trying to get a closer look at Nicole Blomkamp representing 2Oceansvibe.)

And then it got fun...

Here is Dan Nash of Bangersandnash about to get personal... From what I hear it was a great show :)

At this point, little indieBerries had already passed out retired gracefully to her bed.

It was an amazing evening. I am glad I made the 17 thousand hour trip to be there.

Thank you to everyone who made it possible.

Here are the glasses that I got from my Sunglass Hut winners vouchers:

Dolce and Gabbana limited editions. very nice.

nearly got these but i am very happy with my *awesome* choice.

Thanks to Sunglass Hut for being a fab sponsor! :)

and.... one last huge thanks to everyone involved at the awards evening and also to everyone who has shown support for indieBerries in nominating and voting for it in these awards. Drawing cartoons and blogging takes a lot of time and it really means a lot to me to be recognised for it. 

I appreciate it.

I'm excited to see where indieBerries will go this year... I already have some ideas brewing... :)

I'm a WINNER! :)

Last night were the 2010 South African Blog awards. They were held at the One and Only Hotel next to the V & A Waterfront. It is very fancy.

We had some delicious wine and cocktails. 

Che may have overindulged haha - sorry if i was obnoxious to anyone - (in particular the don't party people, {in my defense you were the competition} sorry!) Don't Party is the The Olmeca Edicion Black Best Music Blog winner.

me and my pretty mommy at the awards - perhaps we should have zoomed out. oh well.

Best parenting Blog: The Reluctant Mom

I wore my pink dress that is in all of my cartoons. unfortunately it lost it's triangle shape in transit from Korea... and i had people taking pictures of my multi-coloured-highly-fashionable toenails. (thanks to kristi who painted them) haha. i wouldn't trust che's fashion advice. she just does whatever she wants. rather go with Kim Gray - winner of best fashion blog on that....  

Little indieBerries won Best Havana Club Rum Design Blog and Best Personal blog. 

double whammy! 

YIPPEEE!!!

(me: very happy)

but had serious concern about the prospect of this happening:

thankfully, it did not.

It was a really lovely evening and i had a chance to meet some of the very talented bloggers out there. A huge thanks to everyone who was involved in making such an awesome evening. 

When i got home, my big little-brother gave me a booklet that he had copied from a book that he has called "101 things to do before you're old and boring":

"Dear Che, I was perusing through this book and realised you were the perfect candidate..."

Start your own blog.

(sorry for the terrible picture quality in all of these pics. let's call it post-party jitters)

Win Something.

Succeed at something you're bad at

"In case you didn't catch the joke of the previous page then the next page should illustrate the type of humour that I was talking about. All my love."

cook a meal

(i don't cook. actually i blow stuff up in the kitchen. but simply delicious does... [winner of best new blog and best food and wine blog] )

I have the best brother in the world. and everybody should be jealous that Blake isn't their brother :) Actually my whole family is pretty AMAZEBALLS. thank you mommy and daddy and blake :)

woke up early this morning (jet lag and need for water) and beautiful sunrise out the window.

Best photographic Blog: Guy with Camera

it's my last day in cape town. sob* i don't want to leave! oh well...sigh... champagne breakfast with my amazeballs fam to celebrate. have a lovely Sunday x

the morning after... i'm such a gangster.

Go and check out all the Blog award winners: click here.