the EC

Hello randoms, nice update cathicles, would be nice to hear from the rest of you at some point hint hint hint! So i was in the eastern cape last wk with the secretary and the it guy. Awesome it guy, less than awesome secretary. We started in durbs on mon and drove to kokstad. (this post has been edited extensively) Anyway the following day we went to the exciting metropolis of matatiele to train some ppl who hadn't got more that a gr7 on how to use our application. It was tricky. But my xhosa presentation went very well (thanks dad :-) )  and eventually everyone got the  jist of it and  they were all thrilled that we were going to kfc for lunch:-) . The rest of the wk went similarly and i can now say honestly that i am so over kfc! In other news i'm going to u2 next yr with the Tanj, who by the way i would love to hear from!! 


This weekend promises to be exciting: going to a night market tonight, then tomoro working at my church's pancake stall at their market, then going to a bookclub meeting (it's the first one and I don't know anyone except emily the chich who invited me) then it's rugby time (STORRRRM SAAAAAM!!! :) and then zebra and giraffe in the evening...shu even writing that exhausted a person!!


goed gaan almal!!!

Toastmasters

So if you are wondering why I have put this here , just keep your eyes peeled....more to follow! Plus, I look good!

Weekend in the sun!

Hellos everyone :)

So I've a pretty eventful past couple of days and I figured it was time to get you all to speed....

Thursday ended up being a very boring work day with excitement and drama on either side - rather like a sandwich.

So I arrive at my car on Thursday morning to go to work and find that while it was sleeping innocently in the driveway someone broke into it! Not only were they poor car-breaker-into people who messed up my door, but they didn't even steal anything - very frustrating. In addition to that, it seems they tried to get into the engine to actually steal the car, but that the presence of the internal gear-lock, and I don't know, the LARGE METAL GATE eventually deterred them, so I was feeling all sad about myself and my car the entire day and eventually sloped off home from work.

I leave the house for half an hour to pick something up from a friend and come to find out that the electricity box supplying our house literally exploded! Smoke and sparks and loud noises and everything and that one of the electric lines supplying our house had snapped and was lying on the ground in the service lane, so although we still had electricity, it was very dim electricity. We tried turning on the microwave and if it was like an elderly person with a zimmer-frame was trying to turn the plate. (And because no one else saw the humour in that and instead scolded us about the dangers of using and thus destroying our appliances in a 'brown-out', we did subsequently switch everything off). Now getting a gold of the municipality and actually trying to explain this was quite a feat, and as the only housemate with no plans for the evening, I was designated as the one to sit in the dimness and wait for them to come. I was meant to be packing for my trip to Cape Town, but given the lack of light, that didn't really happen.

Thankfully, it didn't take too long - apparently some people at the municipality do work - and our electricity was fixed later that evening.

But yay! Friday came and I was able to escape our murderous house for a weekend in Cape Town. I booked a fairly early flight and for once arrived while the sun was still shining. My brothers fetched from the airport - it's still strange for me to think of them both having their licenses and we tootled off home, shedding a small tear for the conspicuous absence of the cooling towers.

That evening my family and I went to watch Carmen (the ballet) at the Artscape, I thought beautiful, I know some of you will disagree.

Saturday was a most beautiful day in Cape Town, a welcome change from all the rain and misery and wind in East London at the moment and I spent most of the day helping my mom sort through my gran;s stuff and then going to visit her (this was the main reason for my trip - my gran has gotten senile dementia, but went from living completely independently to being frail care in less than 2 weeks). It was quite horrifying to see the change from when I last saw her in July - she kept talking to my mom in the third person and kept talking about how my uncle and the Prince of Wales were caught in a rainstorm together.

But she seems perfectly content in her own world and is being well-cared for and I think it's one of things that once you get over the shock, probably can be quite funny listening to and seeing the things that they do. While we were there, one of the women with Alzheimer's kept quite determinedly trying to escape in the lift, completely dressed to the nine's, and everytime she succeeded, someone bought her back, only for it to happen again.

Saturday evening was a girls night with lots of food, champagne and talking and I spent the beautiful Sunday we had a Kirstenbosch, seeing my dad and visiting my old church.

I flew home early on Monday morning and was completely exhausted for the rest of yesterday - I don't know how you do it so often Tan!

Anyways, weather depending, I'm meant to going camping at Double-mouth this weekend...should be interesting!

ciou for now lovely people!

my life

so it's been a while, sorry kids!
my life is semi hectic at the mo.
planning a trip to the EC for next week, will be whaling around handing out free cellphones to ppl and generally having a whale of a time. my parents arrived on fri so spent the wkend with them, twas fun. my dad wanted to watch the rugby but we didn't get tickets (we were too slow off the mark) so we watched from the breweries next door. they put a tent up and there was a very fan fest feeling about it all. they even played the wakawaka!
towards the end things were getting out of control and women were "dancing" around without realising how ridiculous they looked. it was awkward. and i didn't know where to look.
i was also in a bit of a mood because of someone who shall remain nameless.
allow me to enlighten you. your feedback on the situation is encouraged:
a certain person's significant other came to town and that certain person neglected to tell me and told me she was going out when i inquired about our weekly dinner and, i believe, acted in a generally evasive manner.
i was hurt by this action and hence decided to administer the silent treatment, is this person  wrong in their action or is the other, possibly hypothetical,person wrong?
i thank you in advance for your feedback.
So for the past few days I have been leaning towards the idea of staying here next year, one never knows what might happen in say, the next 5 minutes tho so I'm not committing myself to anything.
This person's boss asked what they are doing next year and i immediately had heart palpitations and then had to spend 29minutes talking to my therapst about it in our weekly meeting.
my parents are wandering up the west coast this week and will be back by next week (fyi It has been raining here since they left...hehehehe) so we will no doubt be watching the semi final from the same place, cathy i suggest you join us.
tania i hope not to see you in the cape for a while as i KNOW that you're saving up for you-know-what!!!!!
besides i'll be in el next weekend and we can whale then, with bongi obv.

auweidesein bitches!!! (it's from project runway 6, WHICH I LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Roof escapades

There is an apartment block directly next to Danielle's and we recently discovered that is has a roof that can be accessed by anyone. It is marvelous and will be the downfall of us.

We were kinda peeved as our mate Justin had been holding out on the roof - he waited 2 months to tell us, so we are only discovering the joys are roof top drinking as Autumn hits. Gee wiz and has Autumn hit with a vengeance, it is rather chilly now and an icy wind billows down the streets in the morning - which makes me sad because it is only a glimpse of things to come. Winter's here are a menace that I am just not prepared for. However I am excited for Winter sports, woop woop. Ice skating here I come!

I am kinda of a wiz on the ice rink. I don't want to brag, but it just comes naturally to me. Ever since I put on my rollerblades I knew I was destined for great things on blades of some kind. Even though I fell really badly on my first excursion in them - simply because I wanted to race my younger cousin and prove that anything he could do I could better. Well I came short and damaged my coxes - but that's not for here. I didn't let that deter me, and when I did finally get onto an ice rink I took to it like a duck to water. I wizzed around that rink like it was my second home. The second time we went I was racing my rowing coach, Grant, and winning I'l have you know, when some cretin fell in front of me and I had to jump over him to avoid slicing him into little bits with my skates. Now if you are not aware, jumping on ice with skates when you are still a novice (however much you feel like an Olympian) is not easy and very often results in you connecting with the ice. AND in case you didn't know, ice is fuck off sore to land on. SO once again my bum got the raw end of the deal and I was in pain for months. Subsequently that rink, which was in Pretoria, was destroyed when the roof fell in on it...which is a scary thought really, but there it is. Anyway, I am super excited to get back on the horse (rink) and skate for realsies.

Wow, I can get side tracked in the biggest way. I had meant to chat about the roof and here I am unsuccessfully bragging about my skating skills.

back to the topic at hand. THE ROOF is the shizness. I had to clean my bathroom last week (and no, I am not getting sidetracked again, this is relevant) and as this very thought repulsed me to the core, let alone the actual act of cleaning I had to reward myself for doing it. So once the act was done and my bathroom was shiny and clean I got hold of Danielle and we bought some makkolia and headed on up to the roof. It was last Monday...a work night...but we forgot about that and drank a bottle and a half each and when that had run out we headed on over to the GS (which is the local 24hr convenience store) to purchase some more of this wonderful nectar only to bump into Veena, another mate of ours, who was going to the GS for the same reason only she was refilling for the little shin dig that was happening at Jamies place. AHHAHHAHA. So naturally, not wanting to miss out on a party we duly went to Jamies with out makkoli in tow.

It was 3am when I fell into my bed. It was all the roof's fault...actually it was the toilet's fault, but who wants to split hairs at this point.

Then the roof became the scene of the crime four days later, when Friday evening was meant to be a chilled affair so I could save myself for Saturday night madness with Christine on the Han river with the fire works display they had to celebrate Hangul day (which is the day to celebrate the creation of the Korean alphabet, Hangul)...but the company was so genial: the ever present Danielle, Leigh (who works in another school, she's Canadian, adore her) and Justin (a wonderful, but cranky, American). We consumed copious amounts of makkoli and then got an invite to go squeak some takkie at Slang. Who can resist when Slang calls? Not me.

So Saturday began on a deficit...but it too became a raucous affair and ended on the roof of life with further joyous company. But before the roof entered the foray we were drinking on a pirate ship that was built in the middle of a pub in our local party strip, Beomgye (pronounced bum-gay if you recall). We commandeered that ship and drank a drink merrily called Spicy rum cock. It was a winner all round. The roof this time around was inhabited by Christine, Matt, Chris and their fellow teacher whose name eludes me right now. We watched the sunrise and left the building singing songs from 'The Flight of the Conchords'. I will leave you with the lyrics that followed me into my dreams:

Looking round the room
I can tell that you
Are the most beautiful girl in the... room
(In the whole wide room)

And when you're on the street
(depending on the street)
I bet you are definitely in the top 3

And when I saw you at my mate's place
I thought what is she doing... at my mate's place
How did Dave get a hottie like that to a party like this?
Good one Dave! (Ooh, you're a legend Dave)

I ask Dave if he's gonna make a move - he's not sure
I say "Dave do you mind if I do?"
He says he doens't mind, but I can tell he kinda might
But I'm gonna do it anyway

I see you standing all alone by the stereo
I'm gonna dim the lights down very low

You're so beautiful, you could be a waitress
You're so beautiful, you could be an air hostess in the 60s
You're so beautiful, you could be a part-time model

And then I seal the deal
I do my moves - I do my dance moves

Let's travel through, just me and you
And seven other dudes around you on the dance-floor

I draw you near, let's get outta here
Let's get in a cab and buy you a kebab

I can't believe that I'm sharing a kebab with
the most beautiful girl I have ever seen (with a kebab)

Why don't we leave, let's go to my house
We can feel each other up on the couch
I don't mind taking it slow, no

You're so beautiful, like a dream
Or a high-class prostitute

You're so beautiful, you could be a part-time model
But you'd probably have to still keep your normal job

Spending part of your time modelling
and part of your time next to me

My place is usually tidier than this

Fall - talk about this

I can relate

A laugh or two...

Hello, fabulous people!

It is true, being awesome is time-consuming, but here, right to your computer screens is the latest update from my life....

Last week was great, on Monday we found all the Coloureds and Indians of East London when a couple of us went to watch Riaad Moosa at the Guild. He's a Cape Town-born Indian stand-up comedian, who is also co-incidentally a qualified doctor, and very very funny – brilliant at accents

I hadn't laughed so much in ages and the audience was loving it – some of them were practically in tears they were in such hysterics.

So I spent most of Tuesday spontaneously giggling to myself – to lots of skeefs from everyone around me.

On Wednesday evening Albert Frost was playing at Chandlers, and with much marketing on my part, a small group of went to go see him. As it so happens, two of my housemates were also there, thereby giving me a multitude of cool points in the house. Albert Frost is a blues guitarist who has played with the likes of Arno Carstens, Frosted Orange and is a fairly successful artist in his own right, and he did not disappoint.

He had at least six different guitars on the stage, including a 12-string and this awesome little machine where he could record a loop of music and then layer it with other loops to create his own mini-band – all done live, this was very impressive to watch.

On Friday night, after drinks at Highlander, the musically inclined of us went off to the Presidents Lounge at the Cricket Stadium to check out Farryl Purkiss, another acoustic guitarist, who apparently has had songs featured in various ads and on Private Practice. Although we arrived l ate, we still had to sit through almost 2 hours of not-terribly impressive opening acts, in what at times felt like a school event – lot of school kids on holiday and rows of white plastic chairs, but we persevered and eventually he came on stage, also with one of those loop-recorder thingamagigs. Thankfully he was genuinely good and made the wait worthwhile and it was easy to see why he's so popular.

Saturday, after beaching and being accosted by many people handing out vitamin water, we all went to the Gonubie Farmers Hall for a sokkie – and Zoe, I know you probably wouldn't think it possible, but we were actually better than last time. They had put sawdust on the floor and I was wearing very smooth shoes, which would have been fabulous if I had been trying to moonwalk, but at times made it very difficult to look graceful and remain generally in the upright, dancing position, I survived the night unscathed. One of the guys there was from the UK and looked slightly shell-shocked at the whole thing, but even he got into it, though I think he may have dislocated my shoulder trying to do a turn!

The only major downer from Saturday was our alarm – which in recent weeks has become overly enthusiastic about our general security, and so goes through phases of switching itself on, generally while people are in the house and moving around to set it off again, this happened at 5am on Sunday morning. I had been so deeply asleep that that I managed to walk into the door trying to reach the alarm to turn it off – entering the code was a massive act of concentration and then having to explain to the alarm company that we weren't being robbed and that they really need to fix the problem was waaaay beyond my skills level at that point!

Sunday, half asleep and watching the rain, we boldly ventured out and ended up going to the aquarium (cute, the terrapin need to be cleaned) and then tried out Cafe Neo - very cool place, the décor is awesome, the service decent and the food more than edible. Definitely a shining light on East London's culinary landscape.

Anyways, that's all for the moment folks. Sounds a bit like a “My summer holiday” essay I realise, but hopefully I'll improve.

I'm in Cape Town next weekend – so exciting times there. Let me know if you guys are still alive!

funnies :)