Ok, so a while ago we came up with the fab idea of running "The Bachelor, onematchstick Edition" to help me trade my last T-shirts. That grew into the onematchstick Bachelor, Ian and the Bachelorette, Laura which was held at an Exclusive Cocktail Party for Singles in March!

After some nudges from others, I've tweaked the idea even further, and now I am looking for another Bachelor!

So… applications are now open to find the onematchstick Gay Bachelor.

If you meet these criteria, send in your application:

• You are single, male, gay and in Johannesburg
• You are looking for love
• You are comfortable being talked about online and being in a youtube video or two
• You are available to, and will attend the Exclusive Gay Singles Party on Saturday 28th May at the Meat Co, Melrose Arch
• You are willing to mingle with the other guests, and choose out of those who participate your top 5 guys to go on dates with
• You are willing to go on those dates, and then choose a winner to take on a winning date of your choice, at your cost

Applications close by midday Monday 16 May Monday 23 May 2011 (we extended the deadline).

Once we have our Gay Bachelor, I'll be sharing information about him with the world. Then the guys that would like a date with the onematchstick Gay Bachelor, will be attending the Exclusive Gay Singles Party on Saturday 28th May at The Meat Co in Melrose Arch.

We'll be throwing the Singles Party for some mingling to take place, helped by some fun FastDate sessions too, and then the Gay Bachelor will choose who - out of all those who bought one of my T-shirts to come meet him at the party - will then get to go on a date with him.

So: who wants to apply to be the onematchstick Gay Bachelor? You never know, besides having some fun and making some new friends, you just might find love...

To apply:
Tell Serina of FastDate and I, in just a few paragraphs, why you should be chosen as the onematchstick Gay Bachelor, and send your applications with a photo to onematchstick@gmail.com or facebook me.

Remember, applications close at midday on Monday 16 May Monday 23 May! Good luck!

On Saturday I dressed all in white. I embraced the rain and cold with my friends Nuren and Sonja, and we headed to the Orlando Towers in Soweto.

We walked into the dilapidated Turbine Hall and were delighted with the graffiti on the walls, the plants growing where they shouldn't, and the sound of the rain dripping in puddles on the floor as we followed the arrows to met up with Stacey and all the other dreamers.


We all met to be part of a historic portrait taken by New York photographer Justin Tellian, as part of the DREAMERS project. As we celebrated our power to dream, so Justin captured that energy in a series of photographs.

He and his team have been travelling around the world in a spirit of collaboration, capturing portraits of dreamers and spreading the message of: DREAM!

And dream we did!

Onematchstick is a dream I have of helping entrepreneurs to get their dreams of their businesses off the ground. It’s part of my bigger dream for us all, that we can find ways to express our inner potentials through our own personal creations, in whatever expression we choose – from entrepreneurs creating their businesses, to writers writing their words, to parents raising healthy and happy children, to managers uniting teams to reach targets, to singers elevating their voices, to runners breaking their personal best records, to artists sharing their art, to us all expressing our love to those dear to us.

Justin has been capturing dreamers in photos in Brooklyn, Mexico-City, Berlin, Black Rock City and Tokyo. Johannesburg was the last international city before he takes one last portrait in New York, and then shares the photos with the world in October this year.

Jose and Justin share with Sonja and I their message behind the DREAMERS Project, and it's a message worth sharing:


(view youtube video here)

Stacey Rozen is an inspiring woman. She has a vision of connecting girls in Africa through using story telling through scarves.

She started a not-for-profit organization with a founding group of teen orphan girls in Soweto, called Story Scarves. The group of girls would spend Saturdays together with Stacey, sharing stories, being mentored and encouraged to express themselves creatively through making scarves and decorating them. These scarves then got distributed to other girls, each one with the story of the maker of the scarf. The girls who received the scarves then returned letters and photos of themselves. Through this creative expression and exchange, goodwill is being spread all over Africa and barriers are being broken.

During some matchstick madness Sonja Kruse aka the UBUNTU Girl, came up with the idea of running the onematchstick Jokes Competition.

We had quite a few entries, and some of them were:

While lying together in the box, the one matchstick said to another " ... hey skinny, I hold a flame for you..." by Raphael Wyngaardt

What did the onematchstick say to the other?
You also sticking around? by Martijn Vreugde

What did the Onematchstick say to his matchstick boss? "What are you going to do, FIRE ME?!!!! by James Strickland Jr

The winner, chosen by Alon who sponsored the prize of a Springleap T-shirt was Jolandie Rust’s joke:

What did the matchstick boy sing to the matchstick girl on Valentines? .... Come on baby light my fire!

Jolandie has now donated her Springleap T-shirt that she won, and has also given one of her sponsored T-shirts from Gravel Clothing and a cap with her slogan "Dream with your heart" on it. She's going to autograph both the cap and Gravel T-shirt and I bet they will become collectors items when she finishes her adventure and becomes the first woman to cycle around Africa solo!

I'm on the last stretch- the home run! I have only 92 Springleap T-shirts (at the time of writing) left to trade, and then I'll have finished my tenth trade.

I've done a few things over the last year and a bit to help trade the T-shirts on, including throwing Africa's first SWARM Party, doing three-ways, handing out matchsticks with my blog written on them in the traffic, giving talks to companies, holding joke competitions, and even begging on my knees! (Yes, someone said they would trade if I begged- so I did. #IWillGetToMyOffice!)

Most recently I tried my hand at match-making and we had the onematchstick Bachelor and Bachelorette at an exclusive cocktail party for singles.

Well, the last idea got some attention, and so after receiving a few nudges and chatting to quite a few people, and with some planning done and some more still to do, for my "home run" to help trade the last 93 T-shirts I'll be hosting, together with Serena of Fastdate, another exclusive cocktail party. And at this cocktail party we'll be hosting the onematchstick Gay Bachelor!

I'm finalizing the details, and will be announcing it all as soon as possible!

For now though, I'm continuing with the three-ways, and have a reverse three-way offer to put out there- reverse in that it's a request and I need to find someone with the item requested:

My friend Grant wants to get to London for a holiday, so has suggested that if someone has a flight, or lots of voyager miles, and would like to be "paid" in return with Springleap T-shirts for the flight, he's willing to do the trade through me to help move some more of my T-shirts.

So if you just happen to have a return flight to London lying around your house, and don't have any T-shirts and would like about… say… 35 new T-shirts, then give me a call!

Seriously.

If you have tons of voyager miles and would be willing to swop them for a lot of T-shirts (and you can get vouchers for T-shirts too to give as gifts to friends and family) then get in touch and let's see if we can give you a new wardrobe and put a smile on Grants face. And I'll then have a reverse-three-way to add to my story!

Super fly!