Val de Vie Estate in Paarl plays host to a number of prestigious horsey events but the Pink Polo is now a new favourite. Essentially, it’s a glamorous polo match held to raise funds for breast cancer, with a good chunk of the proceeds going towards CANSA.

This year, the event’s main sponsor was Cintron, a premium energy drink available in three flavours – original, cranberry and pineapple. I tried all of them and really liked the original. It tastes a lot like Red Bull but uses more natural ingredients. Think real fruit juice, mineral water and organic cane sugar. Yumness!

Rokkie-wise, you don’t have to wear pink – the dress code simply says ‘polo chic’ – but most people do and this makes for super pretty photos. As I didn’t have anything pink in my cupboard save for Hello Kitty panties, I dashed out to Woolies the day before and found the mooiest li’l maxi dress in their Studio.w collection.

I spent most of my day with fellow bloggers Clouds, Elrico and Ritza (apparently certain media have affectionately dubbed us ‘The Brat Pack’ which is something we’re embracing), Duncan Pape, model/all round ‘kiff chick’ Brigitte Williers and Associated Magazines’ PR Jaco-Louis Groenwald.

How much do we love what Ritza’s wearing? She totally deserves her own piccie:

Other peeps on the scene included Ryk Neethling and TV and radio’s Tracey Lange (aaaargh! I didn’t get that pic of you – so sorry!) as well as this lot:

Aside from the polo, guests were entertained with a Jenni Button fashion show but I don’t have any piccies of that as my camera doesn’t handle people moving very well. You’ll find some nice one’s over here. There was also a display of very sexy luxury cars and, during what could best be described as ‘half time’, guests got to walk out on the field to ‘stomp divots’, a fancy term for flattening the grass again. This is actually super fun ‘cos you get to pretend you’re a ‘classy lady’, channelling your inner Julia Roberts (remember that scene in Pretty Woman?) while trying to not have your wind-buffeted hair track lip gloss all over your face.

Still, for me, the real draw card was the food AKA as the joy of living it up in the VIP section. The last time I saw so many decadent pink eats all in one place was like my 8th birthday party, but this time round we’re talking gooey, gilded, petal-bedecked mini rosewater cheesecakes and organic beetroot and feta tarts as opposed to Zoo biscuits and Fizzers. I can’t tell you how many of those li’l cheesecakes I ate, but let’s just say I might as well start cruising Groupon for a good iLipo package. They were so good I just couldn’t stop! And then there was the cheese – the beautiful, heavenly cheese!

Towards the end of the day, what with all the free-flowing Pongraz bubbly and yummy Cintron cocktails (served up by the cutest, most efficient barman), things got a little blurry around the edges but I managed to retain my classy lady-ness throughout.

Also, thanks to Cintron, I even managed to hit up a friend’s ‘big girls’ night in’ party later that eve when, already that morning, I was considering pulling out as I was convinced a day at the polo would’ve wiped me out.

Later, when I lay in bed twitching with eyes like a nag aapie, riddled with energy drink-induced insomnia, my thoughts were as following:

1. ‘Guess you shouldn’t have had that fifth Cintron, but damn it was delish….
2. ‘What an awesome day out – and for such a great cause!’
3. ‘Why didn’t I shove more of those blerrie cheesecakes into my handsak? Whhhhhy?!!!’

A big dankie, dankie to The Little Black Book PR for having me. Your event was picture perfect and I had a total blast.

Love, love

Leigh