the tail end

last thursday:

choc-chip meringues to bed
deep sleep, deep dreams and a very sore arm and shoulder
one dream of being attacked by thugs in an english station, taking them down and forcing one of them to swallow the end of a lit cigarette
one dream ending in a classroom with a really clever joke i can't recall

relatively fast day prep, shopping with mom and then heading off to knysna
a closed market with nothing we wanted
plettenberg bay game reserve:
1. stunning area, stunning weather
2. loads of animals, and three newborn (within minutes) springbok
3. invisible lions
4. wild dogs
5. gd not being the first to need a toilet break
6. me taking on the idiot who lit up a cigarette on the back of the jeep, and after my lecture he admitted to being from cape town (i would've been too embarrassed)

overall, a gorgeous day
getting lost in a township amidst a battle of perspective
sometimes it just takes my mom to say the things i wish i could have said
a good braai and a loud, pleasantly argumentative dinner

friday:

horrible bellyache throughout the night, dreaming of being in a war and finding a use for some cool toy robots on my downtime, japman and dirk diggler joining me with dirk diggler announcing that he was quitting marijuana

bellyache turning into being sick, struggling to help, surprisingly cheap settling (though we later learned we didn't get what we paid for), a long drive with pinching nerves in harsh heat
visiting my second mum, it was wonderful seeing her but her nephew was really intrusive and irritating
getting back to town, everything all good and then a sudden switch when trying to get a good view of the fog
- i'm a superbad businessman when i'm distracted - getting stuck in traffic -
pleasant sundowners with cousins, trying to recover from such a long day
late dinner, flight comic acquisition, how am i the only one watching master chef?

saturday:

a good sleep, at least
ender's game in graphic novel form: excellent, minus a few confusing battle scenes with didn't translate well
pregnancy anxiety plus lack of medication plus fear of flying home

the inconsiderate parker in a busybody village, the garage fill-up failures, the navigation experiment, the it's-all-gone-very-very-wrong experience and returning to cape town under a black cloud

fixing dinner at posticino

...

klm has a "meet & seat" feature? where you can check out other passenger's profiles? if you've logged in using your facebook/ linkedin profile you can see who's who and even pay to sit next to them. what a gross invasion of privacy! what a repulsive punishment for trusting them by logging in with social media! and just think of all the creeps and con-men who might easily take advantage. we live in a world where phishing scams work.

...

sunday:

early up and well, airplane visit, picking up my sister and her husband to return to philadelphia to discover that we'd turned around mere METRES from our destination :/

a good lunch / drinks, a joyful gd, rushing to spend a tea visit with my little cousin and then on to my aunt's for very pleasant drinks, a quick stop by my toronto cousin's mother and back home feeling completely worn out
rest, salad, bombed on the couch

monday:

rls, long night, flight no-change disturbance, hanging in the hive of scum and villainy that is gallows hill: leg humpers, fidgeting touchers and rubbers, "queue start here" fails and right-eye limited, bribing security with a "donation" to borrow a pen, the long poetry-practice wait
my sister and gd picking me up to go to plant - overeating amazing food - and a final humbling pool run before returning home to pack and say goodbyes

smooth exit, difficult as always but it's nice to know we'll be seeing my mom in a couple of months when our son's born

yesterday:

omfg, dude - don't wake the pregnant woman for mealtimes. from complete relief to complete panic in one second flat.
the usual discomfort + the screen that just wouldn't turn off + the remote cord fail + the neighbour's seat overflow + spilled juice
unwitting toe massages and the luck of the big, friendly giant sleeping the entire flight, gd finally managing to sleep and waking up after breakfast, myself being up and down the whole time with rls

super-fast schipol, comics and complaining and not rejecting my vegan meal, the amazing spiderman 2 and ac/dc - rock or bust
a bummer for the rest of the flight

fairly fast and efficient landing - passport control - baggage claim - shuttle - check-in - security check and then four hours to burn, beginning with a discussion on alternate realities that we face daily

grimm fairy tales: the dream eater saga volume one is gorgeous. almost like once upon a time but with far better writing.

fantastic smoothies, shambling to our gate, a short flight lightly interspersed with confused consciousness, stumbling through the airport to wait through the long line only to learn that the short line was for us, quick baggage claim and a taxi home and prepping for bed and

today:

passing out and waking up and getting to work and doing little but taking forever and a great lunch with cthulhu and star fluxx and standing next to a man farting the blue danube at the urinal and learning symfony and trying to leave early but getting caught by a last-minute issue that took an hour to fix and rushing home to a great dinner and good laughs and the watchmen movie.