Monday, January 5th, 2009
- A wish list for 2009 and the Future-
With so much in the media about Honeymoon Registries, we have decided to highlight a few of the reasons that so many engaged couples are turning to them to replace the more traditional wedding gift wish list
- Couples been living together for a long period of time have everything they need for their home.
- In 2009 many couples might feel that they cannot afford the honeymoon they always dreamed of, with thehoneymoonregistry.co.za family and friends can contribute towards this lifelong honeymoon dream and thus solve the problem.
- Couples get married later and later. They quite often have individually established homes and the thought of combining them together is already a problem. When it comes to wedding gifts a travel and honeymoon wish list is the only way to go. ( click here for a list of honeymoon destinations)
- Couples can put whatever items they want on their registry. Perhaps they have chosen a Beach holiday but would love to go on an elephant safari at some stage of their newly married life. This item can be added to the honeymoon registry and used at their discretion.
- Wedding Guests have a clear idea of what the couple would like to enjoy on their honeymoon and they can avoid purchasing gifts that are not wanted and will never be used.
- A honeymoon registry is considerably more personal than a request for cash. Many wedding guests take offence to requests for straight cash. A wedding is a celebration for all and wedding guests want to leave couples with something that will last forever
- With a honeymoon registry you have the possibility of upgrading your honeymoon. Wedding guests may decide to pay the extra tariff on a hotel room upgrade, or they might organize a hot air balloon ride in the early morning for you. With thehoneymoonregistry.co.za you have the opportunity of including items in your honeymoon that you might otherwise not have been able to afford
- Depending on what couples have chosen for their registry and where they have decided to go for their honeymoon. The honeymoon registry affords couples the prospect of extending their honeymoon into the years to come, for example, they could create a honeymoon registry that has one activity to be completed for every year they have been married.
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Monday, November 3rd, 2008
I thought berimbau was some sort of Asian dish when I first heard the word. But in Brazil, and especially
where I was in Bahia (the northeast corner of Brazil, jutting out into the Atlantic), I learned immediately that it was not some sort of curry or a sweet and sour dish. It’s a strange, haunting, beautiful instrument found throughout Brazil but especially in Bahia, home of the equally infamous dance called capoeira. In fact, the berimbau and capoeira are mutually dependent – the one requiring the presence of the other. If there were only one instrument to symbolize Bahia, I would say it’s the berimbau. Any scenario I can imagine (everything from a samba dancing in a town square to a honeymoon cabana on the beach) I can hear a berimbau’s rubbery, liquid notes as an underscore to these soundtracks.
An artist friend of mine who lived with me for the two months I was in Brazil learned how to play the berimbau. He is a musician from Bangladesh; a classical flute player and composer by trade; a fanatic musical instrument collector by night! The evening he arrived back at the house with an elongated, soft case strapped to his back, nearly the same height as he is, I knew there was a new instrument in the house. His eyes glittered, and despite the fatigue of the journey to and from Salvador from Itaparica
(the island where we lived) to fetch the berimbau and then wrangle it on the buses, kombis (mini van taxis that scoot all over the island) and the final boat ride across the Bay of All Saints, he looked overjoyed. He pulled the berimbau from its case, and gave us the briefest of demonstrations. It seems to require four hands where most of us are only equipped with two: you need to stretch your pinky to hold the thin, bottom brace while at the same time maintaining the proper and fluctuating tension of the string; and then at the same time, the other hand is playing the notes with a little basket on stick filled with beans or shells. The notes resound through the hollowed gourd at the base of the instrument, which rests against the musician’s belly. I have no desire to learn to play it myself; but I’m happy to listen every chance I get. It’s the music of Brazil that is the most haunting; the most mysterious; the most indicative of the vibrant blend of cultures that make up northeast Brazil: Indigenous, African, Portuguese, and others who have crept in over the centuries. Whether you’re in Brazil to explore the Amazon or bask in a h
oneymoon glow or learn to speak Portuguese and dance the samba, listen for the berimbau! You’ll know it by the twang and the rhythmic heartbeat notes that can be the soundtrack to your Brazilian experiences.
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