*** 27th ***
i was going to spend the rest of the day relaxing, but my sister was moving into her new apartment downstairs, and i got roped into helping, which lasted the rest of the day and involved quite a bit of physical exercise.
supper was at our place, and was quite pleasant. all my friends who were supposed to be going to the party decided against it on account of the weather, but a couple of them were still going to go early in the morning.
*** yesterday ***
it seems like a long time ago, but anyway. i woke up at 05.00, and my mother woke up shortly after me. i got dressed (with my indian pants that my grandmother made for me, they're still good, and are only too happy to get covered in mud. plus, they're warm), packed my bag, had some coffee, and was picked up around 06.00.
i had a couple of hits off a joint as i got into the vehicle, and off we went! there were two other people in the back of the bakkie (pick-up truck, retard), and i was already a bit stoned, so i couldn't remember there names, nor think of anything to say. so i stared out the window, which was a good idea - cape town around sunrise is absolutely fantastic (note: i'll probably use that word a lot for this log).
we got there around 07.30 - 08.00, and we were all annoyed to discover that they were charging R120 entrance. we sighed, we grumbled, we paid, and then found a parking spot.
the last time i was at a party with loud sound and lots of people, it was the ravolution. the ravolution was good. this was $#@%ing AMAZING.
the people are better here. much friendlier, and completely and utterly screwed-up, depraved, crazy, silly, and have other questionable qualities too. i had a slight problem from the start, because i recognized a lot of people, and couldn't (and still can't) be sure if i'd actually met them at some point in time, or had merely seen them before, at trance parties throughout the years.
some of them answered that question for me, by coming up to me and saying hi, or giving me a hug.
for R70, we managed to organise 2g of mushrooms, which came with a warning that 1g was enough.
DAMN STRAIGHT.
i had mine, and within what must have been around ten minutes was completely buggered. i almost immediately lost control of my limbs and mind, and had to concentrate to not stumble around like you see in the movies. which was quite embarrassing (although, in retrospect, i'm sure nobody noticed a thing), and it took me forever to get out of a downward spiral. i was going through these cycles of nightmare - euphoria - sobriety, and i was having long, deep debates against myself.
what i've been forgetting in this description is the music. which was brilliant when we got there, and continued to be brilliant (minus about five minutes of "i'm sure he didn't mean to do that!", with amused and frustrated looks from everyone in the crowd) until i left, which was roughly 13.30.
until around 12.00, it was pouring with rain. didn't stop us from bouncing around outside (i was planning on doing this with or without narcotics), and was quite refreshing.
and damp.
when the sun came out, it was as if you could hear angels singing - everyone went completely nuts, and we all missioned to our cars / tents to change gear and put on sunscreen.
we were using some weird $#%@ing sunscreen - reminded me of a slightly more viscous orange jelly. aaaaanyway.
i was supposed to be at lunch at my cousins' around 13.00, but seeing as i only found a ride at 13.30 (or thereabouts), i only got there around 14.30. i was still a bit monged, but had more or less come down. i was feeling much better, as i had almost full control of my body, and my senses weren't playing games with me.
and i wasn't yet feeling the strain of stomping all morning - i discovered later on that i'd managed to damage my left leg, and it's been most uncomfortable.
i got to my cousins' still wearing my indian pants, and full of mud and grime (especially in my nose. i've never understood where all that black stuff comes from, and it always happens). fortunately, i hadn't taken off my shoes while there, so my feet were clean enough to enter the house, and i had a quick shower.
which felt FANTASTICALLY (notice, please, that i've barely used it) good. i then joined the lunch. there were a lot of guests, and everyone was dressed quite smart (as opposed to me, in my baggy black cargo pants and a white t-shirt). let the discomfort begin!
talking to my one cousin, i forgot the golden rule of being (even slightly) high. keep your mouth shut. don't be clever. i told him (and this was true) that we'd been playing "where's waldo" on the dancefloor. we'd search for someone in particular, in a crowd of really strange looking (and sometimes quite scary) people, and we were having a good laugh doing it. my explanation didn't come out quite right, though, and he was onto me. i was really upset when he pulled out a serviette, waved it at me, and said "look! blue! shiny!".
the rest of lunch went fairly well, and i managed to remember the golden rule after the serviette.
my mother drove me and my second mom back to sea point, where i got changed, picked up my ticket and drove to dockside, where i was meeting firstfallen and panda for the fight club. dockside is an awesome venue for fighting - three levels of people surrounding the ring feels very similar to pit-fighting, and the lighting and acoustics are good.
the proceedings were not very professional, and it was hosted by mavericks, which we later discovered is the name of a strip club. so there were lots of skanky (and really stupid) ho's all over the place. also, the MC was as stupid as he is ugly, and what really sucked is that there were a few people in the crowd who actually laughed at his totally sucky jokes. the man was just - not - funny.
most of the fighting was fairly boring, but there were a few fights that were really impressive. because i do taekwondo, i expect there to be real kicking in kick-boxing and muay-thai, and all i saw was punching, elbows, and weak knees.
what annoyed me somewhat was the match-ups: there were a few matches of kick-boxing vs. muay-thai, but not muay-thai vs. muay thai. i would have loved to see that.
a couple of the no-rules fights were pretty good. normally it just seems like two sweaty men making out. in one fight, one of them got put in a neck-brace after being picked up (from the make-out position) and slammed back-first into the mat. another guy got picked up WWE style and spun-'n-dropped onto the mat, which is much more impressive when you know he's not helping his opponent out. and the last guy got punch so hard he got his cheek crushed.
all in all, it was quite enjoyable, but it lent me a new appreciation for taekwondo, and the more traditional martial-arts.
i got home fairly late, made another attempt at watching the horse-whisperer, couldn't keep my eyes open, and managed to get to bed just in time to pass out.
*** today ***
i slept in, so i didn't get the car. i missed the bus by seconds, and ran almost all the way to tkd. fortunately, just past halfway there, i managed to hitch a ride from some guy leaving gym, and i got there just in time.
and warmed up.
and alone. nobody else rocked up this morning, so the instructor told me to do whatever i wanted. so i stretched, and almost did front-back splits on both sides! i'm very proud. i did push-ups and sit-ups, which i'd been intending to do the whole weekend, and then went on to forms.
i was buggered when i got there, and i was buggered when i left, but i felt really good afterwards, as i walked back home - i think it might be from watching the fights last night.
Monday, September 29, 2003
Saturday, September 27, 2003
27/09/03
*** 25th ***
i woke up really badly, after a night spent tossing and turning - all my muscles were really stiff and uncomfortable, and the bruises were all screaming for acknowledgement.
so, for once, skipping tkd became a very real option.
i didn't have the energy to drive my mom to work, which meant that i was stuck without a vehicle for the day.
firstfallen and i had arranged to meet in town, so i decided to take a walk, through greenpoint. it was a pleasant walk, and it did help a little to loosen my muscles (although not to remove the tenderness), but i realized about halfway there that i wouldn't make it in time, so i flagged down a black taxi. i got dropped off at st. george's mall, with all my valuables still on me (i always get paranoid), and after a bit of walking around town discovered that i'd been closer to my destination when on foot.
figures.
i met up with firstfallen, and we got ourselves some seafood for lunch. i had a calamari burger with chips, and she got herself fish and salad, the latter turning into chips all by itself.
after lunch i walked to the train station, and bought a ticket to rosebank. one stop before, i got up, and found myself staring at a woman who used to work for my parents (years and years ago). we had this moment, before she realized who i was, and then jumped up to give me a hug! we talked for a bit, and then i had to get off.
i took the jammie up to campus, and went in search of some CLAWcreatures. moonflake wasn't in her office, and NCc. was empty, so i went to visit campey (which was the main purpose of the trip anyway - i just like to cross the i's and dot the t's).
we went to the cafeteria for an interesting cup o' coffee. while we were talking, his sister drove up, so i met her from a distance. i joined him for a bit of a mission, then went off to stare at the view from jameson hall. it's amazing, how cape town always makes an incredible background, but we almost never focus on it.
we perfomed a quick experiment on campey's linux box, attempting to program in c++ in vi and pico (i MUCH prefer pico). it didn't work. i think it's the platform and setup, as opposed to my code being faulty. i really need to learn how to setup the environment, or at least how to deal with different ones.
he reminded me that he was involved in a play (gilbert and sullivan?) called sailor beware!, and then shadowslight called telling me to be ready to go through to firstfallen's place. we were going through for a visit in light of the jewish new year getting in the way of her party on friday night.
drivin' with shadowslight was entertaining as usual. we picked up firstfallen, and went on some errands of hers. while we were waiting outside the laundromat, some really, REALLY stoned / drunk / whatever guy came up to the car window looking for a handout. he stumbled and squashed his face against the window, and i had this image float through my mind, of her in that situation, 'cos she'd be TOTALLY freaked out.
firstfallen bought this humungous roti, and we met up with synkronos as he happened to be walking by. we then went to firstfallen's to play some munchkin fu.
i had about half of the roti, which was quite potent. it was also a very friendly one - it kept popping up to say "hi" throughout the rest of the evening.
i beat them at munchkin fu - employing some really silly (albeit clever) tactics, and getting the others to practically allow me to win...
we then joined some friends of ours at the masque theatre, in muizenberg. i almost had a run-in with my 7th grade history teacher, but fortunately he didn't recognize me. the production was amateur, but most amusing, and seeing campey in his sailor outfit (and his british boxer-briefs) was completely worthwhile.
afterwards, we all went backstage to have a little fun at others' expense, and then headed home.
*** yesterday ***
the first thing i remember from yesterday, was waking up thinking about the roti. goodness, gracious, great bowels afire!
there was way less traffic than usual, apparently something to do with school holidays, which was much less frustrating than usual.
taekwondo was very chilled. apparently, nobody had turned up the day before, so i didn't actually miss anything. thank you, me!
i got home, showered, and promptly turned into errand boy for the rest of the day.
i drove my second mum to my aunt's place, to drop off some stuff for dinner, returned, had curry for lunch (not strong curry, but i hadn't seen the last of the previous night's as yet), and then received a call telling me that i had to go do some shopping.
on my way, i received another call cancelling that instruction. my sister had asked me to wait at her place for telkom to come and install the phone lines, but there was nobody home. so i went to her soon-to-be old apartment, where her kids were busy packing, and wondering how to schlep everything across.
so i offered to help. while we were moving some rather heavy boxes (i seem to have an affiliation with hernia-popping activities), we realized that my niece (the other one) had left her phone in the apartment. i then got a frantic call from my sister saying that the telkom guys had arrived. my nephew and i continued moving, while my niece ran off to let them in.
she couldn't get the door open, so my nephew went after her, and i got stuck carrying the boxes by myself. brilliant.
eventually we got organized, and i got some exercise. unfortunately, i ripped my pants while lifting - although i suspect it had a lot to do with the curry's flamethrower effect having weakened the material.
i returned home to change my pants, only to be reminded that i'd completely forgotten my mum at work, and had less than ten minutes to get there.
PANIC!
i got there pretty much on time, and we went to pick 'n pay for some emergency (and munchies) shopping. we bought two whole roasted chickens, which we've now named ted and brian.
and they DO look tasty.
my mom went to the synagogue, and i watched some tv. i don't know if other people have this problem: at some point i remembered that i'd wanted to take a shower. my mom didn't have keys on her, so if i did shower then there'd be a good chance that she'd arrive, and be stuck outside. so i didn't shower, and of course she arrived much, much later.
grrr. at least i'd had one earlier.
we went to my aunt's for dinner. it's the first new year we've celebrated without my uncle (who passed away this year), and it was really difficult for my mom and aunt. i was a little distracted too, and when i got there, there were all these people whom i hadn't seen in a long time, and everyone was asking me all sorts of questions that i really wasn't in a frame of mind to answer.
so i had me a johnny walker black label, and hid with my cousins in a metaphorical corner, until i could get my head more or less together.
one of my mom's best friends phoned her around 9pm, asking her to please come to the jail at 01.30 to bail him out - he'd been arrested for being over the alcohol limit. that was entertaining.
the basic plan after getting home, was to kip for half an hour, and then accompany my mom to the jail, and then to go out for the tail-end of firstfallen's party.
*** today ***
apparently, my mom tried three times to wake me up this morning, and even managed to get responses from me. i don't remember talking to her at all.
i woke up in time for saturday morning cartoons, which i haven't done since i was a kid. i've been reading a bit from terry goodkind's wizard's first rule, which is getting interesting (i'm going to have to get used to his style, though). i was meant to call her last night, and we got the timing all wrong, so i'm gonna try now, and hope she's not too upset with me.
i'm still quite exhausted, so i'm gonna have to do some sleeping today - BEEG party tonight. gonna hopefully get hold of some magical fungus...
i woke up really badly, after a night spent tossing and turning - all my muscles were really stiff and uncomfortable, and the bruises were all screaming for acknowledgement.
so, for once, skipping tkd became a very real option.
i didn't have the energy to drive my mom to work, which meant that i was stuck without a vehicle for the day.
firstfallen and i had arranged to meet in town, so i decided to take a walk, through greenpoint. it was a pleasant walk, and it did help a little to loosen my muscles (although not to remove the tenderness), but i realized about halfway there that i wouldn't make it in time, so i flagged down a black taxi. i got dropped off at st. george's mall, with all my valuables still on me (i always get paranoid), and after a bit of walking around town discovered that i'd been closer to my destination when on foot.
figures.
i met up with firstfallen, and we got ourselves some seafood for lunch. i had a calamari burger with chips, and she got herself fish and salad, the latter turning into chips all by itself.
after lunch i walked to the train station, and bought a ticket to rosebank. one stop before, i got up, and found myself staring at a woman who used to work for my parents (years and years ago). we had this moment, before she realized who i was, and then jumped up to give me a hug! we talked for a bit, and then i had to get off.
i took the jammie up to campus, and went in search of some CLAWcreatures. moonflake wasn't in her office, and NCc. was empty, so i went to visit campey (which was the main purpose of the trip anyway - i just like to cross the i's and dot the t's).
we went to the cafeteria for an interesting cup o' coffee. while we were talking, his sister drove up, so i met her from a distance. i joined him for a bit of a mission, then went off to stare at the view from jameson hall. it's amazing, how cape town always makes an incredible background, but we almost never focus on it.
we perfomed a quick experiment on campey's linux box, attempting to program in c++ in vi and pico (i MUCH prefer pico). it didn't work. i think it's the platform and setup, as opposed to my code being faulty. i really need to learn how to setup the environment, or at least how to deal with different ones.
he reminded me that he was involved in a play (gilbert and sullivan?) called sailor beware!, and then shadowslight called telling me to be ready to go through to firstfallen's place. we were going through for a visit in light of the jewish new year getting in the way of her party on friday night.
drivin' with shadowslight was entertaining as usual. we picked up firstfallen, and went on some errands of hers. while we were waiting outside the laundromat, some really, REALLY stoned / drunk / whatever guy came up to the car window looking for a handout. he stumbled and squashed his face against the window, and i had this image float through my mind, of her in that situation, 'cos she'd be TOTALLY freaked out.
firstfallen bought this humungous roti, and we met up with synkronos as he happened to be walking by. we then went to firstfallen's to play some munchkin fu.
i had about half of the roti, which was quite potent. it was also a very friendly one - it kept popping up to say "hi" throughout the rest of the evening.
i beat them at munchkin fu - employing some really silly (albeit clever) tactics, and getting the others to practically allow me to win...
we then joined some friends of ours at the masque theatre, in muizenberg. i almost had a run-in with my 7th grade history teacher, but fortunately he didn't recognize me. the production was amateur, but most amusing, and seeing campey in his sailor outfit (and his british boxer-briefs) was completely worthwhile.
afterwards, we all went backstage to have a little fun at others' expense, and then headed home.
*** yesterday ***
the first thing i remember from yesterday, was waking up thinking about the roti. goodness, gracious, great bowels afire!
there was way less traffic than usual, apparently something to do with school holidays, which was much less frustrating than usual.
taekwondo was very chilled. apparently, nobody had turned up the day before, so i didn't actually miss anything. thank you, me!
i got home, showered, and promptly turned into errand boy for the rest of the day.
i drove my second mum to my aunt's place, to drop off some stuff for dinner, returned, had curry for lunch (not strong curry, but i hadn't seen the last of the previous night's as yet), and then received a call telling me that i had to go do some shopping.
on my way, i received another call cancelling that instruction. my sister had asked me to wait at her place for telkom to come and install the phone lines, but there was nobody home. so i went to her soon-to-be old apartment, where her kids were busy packing, and wondering how to schlep everything across.
so i offered to help. while we were moving some rather heavy boxes (i seem to have an affiliation with hernia-popping activities), we realized that my niece (the other one) had left her phone in the apartment. i then got a frantic call from my sister saying that the telkom guys had arrived. my nephew and i continued moving, while my niece ran off to let them in.
she couldn't get the door open, so my nephew went after her, and i got stuck carrying the boxes by myself. brilliant.
eventually we got organized, and i got some exercise. unfortunately, i ripped my pants while lifting - although i suspect it had a lot to do with the curry's flamethrower effect having weakened the material.
i returned home to change my pants, only to be reminded that i'd completely forgotten my mum at work, and had less than ten minutes to get there.
PANIC!
i got there pretty much on time, and we went to pick 'n pay for some emergency (and munchies) shopping. we bought two whole roasted chickens, which we've now named ted and brian.
and they DO look tasty.
my mom went to the synagogue, and i watched some tv. i don't know if other people have this problem: at some point i remembered that i'd wanted to take a shower. my mom didn't have keys on her, so if i did shower then there'd be a good chance that she'd arrive, and be stuck outside. so i didn't shower, and of course she arrived much, much later.
grrr. at least i'd had one earlier.
we went to my aunt's for dinner. it's the first new year we've celebrated without my uncle (who passed away this year), and it was really difficult for my mom and aunt. i was a little distracted too, and when i got there, there were all these people whom i hadn't seen in a long time, and everyone was asking me all sorts of questions that i really wasn't in a frame of mind to answer.
so i had me a johnny walker black label, and hid with my cousins in a metaphorical corner, until i could get my head more or less together.
one of my mom's best friends phoned her around 9pm, asking her to please come to the jail at 01.30 to bail him out - he'd been arrested for being over the alcohol limit. that was entertaining.
the basic plan after getting home, was to kip for half an hour, and then accompany my mom to the jail, and then to go out for the tail-end of firstfallen's party.
*** today ***
apparently, my mom tried three times to wake me up this morning, and even managed to get responses from me. i don't remember talking to her at all.
i woke up in time for saturday morning cartoons, which i haven't done since i was a kid. i've been reading a bit from terry goodkind's wizard's first rule, which is getting interesting (i'm going to have to get used to his style, though). i was meant to call her last night, and we got the timing all wrong, so i'm gonna try now, and hope she's not too upset with me.
i'm still quite exhausted, so i'm gonna have to do some sleeping today - BEEG party tonight. gonna hopefully get hold of some magical fungus...
Wednesday, September 24, 2003
24/09/03
i just got back from watching pirates of the caribbean, and it was ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC! i'm not sure if it's all ages, but if a parent takes their child to watch it, that child will never appreciate another film again. i felt like a little kid the whole time - if there were holes in the plot, or any errors of any kind whatsoever, i would neither notice, nor care. it was just freakin' AWESOME. the actors were great (i really dig johnny depp), and the effects were just wonderful.
*** yesterday ***
i went to taekwondo this morning, in spite of my not feeling too well. it turned out to be a fitness training, with one hundred push-ups and two hundred sit-ups just to start the session. after about half an hour of legwork, i could barely stand (and definitely not straight at that), and my arms were numb and unresponsive. i shamefully asked for a chance to get some water.
DENIED.
after a shower, and a warm, half-cooked pie, and went to varsity. the person i went to see, campey, was the only person on campus i didn't come into contact with. all the rest were there, with some arbitrary discussions and some interesting moments. i once again found myself lecturing the little ones (post-bob bobs) - i only hope it had some effect.
and some black girl, with some serious issues, got really offended by me and everything i said. apparently she has that problem with everyone, i just think it's strange that she hasn't noticed.
if you don't like people, then shut the $#@% up.
my mum took me along to see some flats in bantry bay. R2.5M and up, and they really weren't all that. not to say they weren't nice, but for that kind of money one really can do much better. just in case, my mom's looking on behalf of her boss. we're stuck here, due to financial constraints.
that was a nice way of putting it.
i had promised krybabie i'd meet up with him for coffee, so that was the next stop. we talking inanities for about an hour, and then my mom rescued me, our car swapped drivers, and i went off to cavendish to see the movie. first stop, mugg 'n bean, then the movie itself.
after the movie, shadowslight and i went to play pool in the atrium (or whatever it's called now), which turned out to be a really nice place. no smoking, but very nice tables (with space around them). only payoff is it costs R4 per game, but it was worth it.
*** today ***
in spite of the public holiday, my mother had to go to work today. after i dropped her off, i drove straight to tkd, where we had fighting drills. which have left me with aching, non-compliant muscles everywhere.
including my two front / side neck muscles, and now everything that involves my head turning hurts.
there were two of us in training this morning, and in spite of our hitting each other repeatedly, hard, in all sorts of nasty places, we were told to stop being so scared and to really go in and take the punishment.
and to ignore all our instincts.
it felt but SO good to get out of there.
had a shower, ate a cold meat sandwich with tons o' SERIOUSLY hot mustard, and went to go fetch my mum. traffic was quite annoying, but i had alice cooper and ratm playing, so no worries.
my mom took me to the cemetary.
we went to kfc for lunch.
we went to visit my cousins for coffee. my cousin's two 18 month old boys drooled all over me. and required much physical effort to keep out of trouble, not at all assisting in my healing process.
we came home, i passed out, and had some nice dreams (about her, and not pervy dreams either).
i'm bored, so i'm writing this and then going online.
*** yesterday ***
i went to taekwondo this morning, in spite of my not feeling too well. it turned out to be a fitness training, with one hundred push-ups and two hundred sit-ups just to start the session. after about half an hour of legwork, i could barely stand (and definitely not straight at that), and my arms were numb and unresponsive. i shamefully asked for a chance to get some water.
DENIED.
after a shower, and a warm, half-cooked pie, and went to varsity. the person i went to see, campey, was the only person on campus i didn't come into contact with. all the rest were there, with some arbitrary discussions and some interesting moments. i once again found myself lecturing the little ones (post-bob bobs) - i only hope it had some effect.
and some black girl, with some serious issues, got really offended by me and everything i said. apparently she has that problem with everyone, i just think it's strange that she hasn't noticed.
if you don't like people, then shut the $#@% up.
my mum took me along to see some flats in bantry bay. R2.5M and up, and they really weren't all that. not to say they weren't nice, but for that kind of money one really can do much better. just in case, my mom's looking on behalf of her boss. we're stuck here, due to financial constraints.
that was a nice way of putting it.
i had promised krybabie i'd meet up with him for coffee, so that was the next stop. we talking inanities for about an hour, and then my mom rescued me, our car swapped drivers, and i went off to cavendish to see the movie. first stop, mugg 'n bean, then the movie itself.
after the movie, shadowslight and i went to play pool in the atrium (or whatever it's called now), which turned out to be a really nice place. no smoking, but very nice tables (with space around them). only payoff is it costs R4 per game, but it was worth it.
*** today ***
in spite of the public holiday, my mother had to go to work today. after i dropped her off, i drove straight to tkd, where we had fighting drills. which have left me with aching, non-compliant muscles everywhere.
including my two front / side neck muscles, and now everything that involves my head turning hurts.
there were two of us in training this morning, and in spite of our hitting each other repeatedly, hard, in all sorts of nasty places, we were told to stop being so scared and to really go in and take the punishment.
and to ignore all our instincts.
it felt but SO good to get out of there.
had a shower, ate a cold meat sandwich with tons o' SERIOUSLY hot mustard, and went to go fetch my mum. traffic was quite annoying, but i had alice cooper and ratm playing, so no worries.
my mom took me to the cemetary.
we went to kfc for lunch.
we went to visit my cousins for coffee. my cousin's two 18 month old boys drooled all over me. and required much physical effort to keep out of trouble, not at all assisting in my healing process.
we came home, i passed out, and had some nice dreams (about her, and not pervy dreams either).
i'm bored, so i'm writing this and then going online.
Monday, September 22, 2003
22/09/03
*** 16th ***
after tkd and a much-needed shower, i received a phone call from hi-fi corp, informing me that the regional manager okayed our getting a cash refund for the radio we bought.
this was really cool, but i had to hang around there for AGES getting it all sorted.
i finally left around the time that i should have been making my way to fetch my mom from work.
silly me, i got lost.
ignoring the waste of petrol, it also caused me to make it just in the nick of time - for rush hour. great.
my mother and i stopped in town on the way home, to visit some family friends. and have a drink (johnny walker, black label). anyone who knows me, knows that my alcohol tolerance is rather low.
i drove home. my mom made supper, which i had practically no time to eat. as soon as i finished, i rushed off to cavendish. the movie was starting at 19.45. i left home around 19.30. i arrived at the theatre, i think, at 19.55. either way, we (eighteen of us) made it in time for the last couple of ads.
equilibrium was #@!$ing BRILLIANT. there were many holes in the plot, and some continuity errors, but all in all it was very cool to watch, and the fight scenes were absolutely STUNNING.
after the movie, a few of us decided that lizards was a good idea. two of the guys came with me to get my car, and taught me a rather big lesson.
most of the time, in israel, i'll make a joke, and everyone gives me funny looks, like my sense of humour is not acceptable. with these guys, i barely got to finish my sentences - they were quick on the draw and we were all in sync. it's a culture difference. i MUST remember this when i return. i'll admit, israel's given me a mean streak a mile and a half wide, but there's elements of myself i don't wanna squash.
lizards was cool. towards the end, however, shadowslight and i truly began to shine. we played some SERIOUS pool - we were both in the zone, and were just hammering away at funny angles. that felt gooood.
*** 17th ***
my day started off with fighting drills. this is very, very, very, very tiring. and repetitive. and tiring.
not to mention the fact that i hadn't got much sleep the previous night...
i spent the majority of the day sleeping.
at some point in the afternoon i remembered to take my prayer shawl to the dry cleaners. it took about half a minute of argueing before i realized that what the women behind the counter was telling me was that there is no charge for religious items. interesting.
i then went to milnerton to pick up my mom. we stopped by a computer game store in the building, which is owned and run by to ex-israelis. we had a very interesting, yet pointless, political debate, but i discovered something really, really cool while there. two collections: king's quest with the laura bow games, and quest for glory. i really want those. it does mean installing windows 98 on my machine in israel, and so i would need a bigger harddrive, but i think i need that anyway.
after we went shopping at pick 'n pay, we returned home, and my second mom organized supper. while watching friends and eating, my sister rocked up, and we went downstairs to visit the apartment she's moving into: it's very, very nice.
*** 18th ***
tkd this morning was a severe lesson in patience. i know the first form so completely and utterly, that my brain switches off when i do it. this is the form that we spent the entire hour studying. the worst part was, i had to match timing with this girl who was learning it for the first time...
after a shower, i drove to claremont to pick up some (what turned out later to be) useless documents, and then drove back to mowbray, to shadowslight's workplace.
i realized, almost immediately after arriving, that i was starving, so i made a mission to champs for an R8 burger. and i have to admit that, while walking back eating this thing, all i could think of was sylvester stallone in demolition man, discussing the really good rat-burger.
we managed to set up the DDK on shadowslight's pc, and i began figuring out what goes where, and how, in terms of writing printer drivers.
i was there for quite a while, and managed to achieve, for all intents and purposes, nothing.
back to milnerton to get my mom. while there, some guy had the audacity to comment on my gloves! i #$@%ing LOVE my gloves, but mocking him back without him realizing it wasn't quite satisfying.
subjecting one's mum to system of a down for about twenty minutes is a form of evil. but i had to try.
she still doesn't like it.
i'm trying to chill with cheesy substances (lactose intolerance), so instead of ordering pizza, we stopped by texie's for hake & chips (i wanted a gatsby, but they were out of bread), before my mom dropped me off at shadowslight's for thursday night movies.
first up: aliens ii. very cool, but we did some very nasty things to it. f'rinstance, firstfallen's suggestion that the hands coming out of the floor were actually being held by an ingenious alien :).
afterwards, we played a really entertaining game of munchkin fu, before arad dropped me off home.
*** 19th ***
i knew we were having fight training, and was expecting a broken rib or two. fortunately, that didn't happen. however, i came out of it with a completely screwed up knee, and a pretty sore chest. we spent at least half an hour kicking each other in the sternum, pretty hard.
i dropped one of the guys off at the waterfront. while leaving the parking lot, some cute girl walking past the car gave me a really sweet smile.
don't get it.
on the way home, i stopped at a set of traffic lights, headbanging to one of the crazier songs. suddenly, i noticed an elderly couple in the car next to me, and this old man was holding a tiny dog on his lap, and the dog was staring at me.
he picked up the dog's paw and began waving at me, so i waved back. he then started telling me how his dog loves music. wonderful.
just then the music got a little harder. i was still headbanging, and this crazy old coot was STILL talking! i have no clue what he said, all i could do was smile and nod...
i went to the traffic department, to renew my license. some guy got hold of me as i walked in, and explained everything. nice.
the bitch was the eye test - my left eye is a hell of a lot weaker than my right, and everything appears just a little further away. crap.
on my way home, i stopped by the waterfront to have my watch adjusted. i discovered that if you're by yourself, there really is nothing to do there.
i fetched my mum from work, and we sat through some pretty heavy traffic. she'd been having an annoying day, so i convinced her to come with me for coffee. we went back to the waterfront, and found this really nice little place (don't remember the name).
we were joined by my aunt, who happened to be walking past.
while we were there i saw the primi piatti uniform for the first time - it is WAY cool! my niece works there, so i'm going to try to organize a couple: they're bright orange overalls! just my style.
i went to the synagogue for the first time in almost seven years. it was really weird - i had a couple of warm, fuzzy moments, but most of it was just as i'd remembered. dull and meaningless.
my mom pieced together a quick meal for us, and then it was off to play tekken at shadowslight's. i got my nephew to come along, as he's been trash-talking me for a couple of years. and he's good at it. turned out to be a good idea: firstfallen's playstation isn't chipped, so we wouldn't have been able to play. getting to the car in order to drive all the way back to sea point to pick up his, we were pissed upon heavily by god and his cronies. it felt like a scene from a really bad sailing movie.
we played tekken until shadowslight chucked us out at around 4am. it turned out to be more or less fair, and i think everyone else enjoyed it too. aeroplane and some friends of his rocked up at one stage, completely trashed, after trying to find the place for over half an hour. they then disappeared to find munchies, and came back for just long enough to say goodbye and return to the northern suburbs. so that one of them could meet up with some chick. not impressed.
*** 20th ***
i woke up really late, around 1pm i think, and spent the first few hours of my day eating. there wasn't much transition between breakfast and lunch - all i remember was being quite hungry.
i caught the south african version of the weakest link. this woman on the british version is mean, but she's really clever and quick. our one is as stupid as she is nasty - she couldn't even pronounce descartes, and her insults were pathetic. i heard worse when i was in primary school. hell, i said worse when i was in primary school.
talk about being hired based on looks.
i wasn't feeling too well, but my mom convinced me to go shopping with her. checkers sucks. and my head spinning didn't help, either.
we went over to my sister's place for coffee. my nephew set up a really nice nargila, with banana and melon tabacco, and my niece told us one of the funniest stories i've ever heard.
this happened sometime last week: some guy made a booking for a table at primi piatti, and he didn't show up. she didn't think he would, as he'd been completely $#@%ed when he'd made it (her description of how screwed up this guy was was hilarious, i'm guessing lsd though). she got drunk with her manager a couple of nights later, and she saw the same guy. so she went up to him and started screaming at him.
she then dragged this guy (who was trashed again, as well) to her manager, and made him apologize to her. apparently (she doesn't remember this, but i think her manager told her later) she slapped the poor oke!
well, i know one thing. this guy's never going to primi piatti ever again! :)
the four of us (not my mom) went to the waterfront to watch bruce almighty. unfortunately, i ran into krybabie and his girlfriend. i haven't spoken to this guy in ages (we used to be best friends) because, to put it simply, i don't like him. i think he's a complete asshole. anyway, he comes up to me, and ask me if everything's cool, but he does it in such a way that it was like staring at a sweet innocent puppy before you pull the trigger.
and after i told him everything was okay, he wanted a hug. i feel so dirty.
* SHUDDER *
we then went in to see the movie. it wasn't bad, and seeing the girl from jag dressed up so sexy, made the movie well worth seeing. as far as comedy goes, there were a couple of good scenes, but on the whole it wasn't my idea of a five-star film.
more coffee - we went to love, revenge and cappucino for, you guessed it, cappucino. well, i did anyway. my sister and her daughter ordered something chocolatey. aside from the girl talk, i had to get a lecture from both of them, on how i have to have a "talk" with her father when i get back. just the thought of which makes my toes curl, and my vision blurry.
i discovered that i wasn't the only person not let in on babyacid's birthday party plans. firstfallen and i arranged to go hunting for it together. i gave my nephew a ride to bantry bay, picked up firstfallen, and off to obs we went.
first stop, gandalf's. the music downstairs was okay, but the music in mordor was just freakin' WEIRD. really bad house music. in mordor.
we couldn't find anyone, so we decided to try cool runnings. yes, everyone was there. most of them slightly, err... tipsy.
serendipity was the name of the game - we walked in just in time to st-, uhh, remove the mints from the bill. we sat around for a few minutes before moving to gandalf's. where a fairly quick conversation concerning deja vu took place.
gandalf's was fun. at some point, the music turned from okay to good. at another point, it apparently went from good to excellent, but i'd left by then.
typical.
all sorts of interesting people joined us, and a good time was had by most. i only had two brandy-'n-cokes, and one shooter (of something sour, i think), and i did bounce around a little bit (i remember them playing some rage against the machine).
was having a little trouble following conversations (my ears are definitely damaged), and my mind was wondering a little. i was attempting to stick my tongue, tip first, down the back of my throat, when moonflake asked me if i was okay. so i explained myself. i'm SO glad that things that intrigue me can cause such amusement... :)
*** 21st ***
leaving was a bit difficult, as the people i wanted to say goodbye to were all over the place, and it took me two or three attempts.
the drive home was fine. really. i have trouble thinking, seeing, and generally just being when i've had something to drink, but i can always drive. i wonder if everyone thinks that?
i tried to update my logs. unsuccessfully.
i had yet another early wakeup. which was why i'd left gandalf's so early.
it's approximately a two hour drive to sandbaai. i was planning on sleeping in the car, but everything was just SO pretty! it also gave me and my mom time to talk about completely arbitrary things.
when we got to my uncle/aunt's place, we had some coffee, and then took a walk down to the beach. they all sat on a bench, while i took a kiddies' hike to some hidden rockpool, to sit and contemplate my navel. and wonder where all those weird insect-type creatures come from. it was incredible, but all i could think of was having her with me. in fact, i spent the rest of the day just wishing that she could see all of this, and understand why i can't leave this place for too long.
my uncle braaied for lunch. and ohmigod, it was fantastic! we had chops, and wors, and chicken, and it was all done to absolute perfection. i even went for thirds and fourths, in spite of my stomache.
* SHUDDER *
damn, that was gooood.
we all spent the next couple of hours chilling, sleeping, reading, and laying in the grass (they have their own private mini-kirstenbosch).
we went for a short drive to hermanus, where we watched the whales, which was very cool. i didn't get a close view of them, but what i did see was awesome. they're much more impressive when they're in the wild, doing what they do.
also, it was nice to be there before the festival starts - there weren't many tourists and everyone was relaxed.
after some coffee, and chocolate mousse, we drove home. hitting traffic on the way. it wasn't so bad though, as it was even prettier on the return journey. coming over the mountain, into elgin valley, is really amazing. screw new zealand, we have enough here! (lame lord of the rings reference)
i was fully intending to pass out when i got home, but duncs really wanted to play pool, so shadowslight and i obliged and we all met at stones in obs. duncs was a bit loud, but we were there for him (in essence), so we dealt with it. one really should learn to play before trash-talking people who are good in a game, 'cause it looks silly when you lose. at least he wasn't being too serious about it. we had fun.
*** 22nd ***
i had some difficulty in tkd - we were doing forms, and my body just wasn't in the mood to co-operate with me.
i got home, suddenly remembered (thank you nokia) a dentist appointment. an hour long dentist appointment.
let's just say i didn't really feel like it. it wasn't THAT bad, and it didn't hurt, but it really bothers me when someone puts a drill in your mouth and it sounds like it's going to come out the top of your skull, and in the end it has no visible effect.
the whole thing only took 25 minutes. not to sound ungrateful, or anything, it's just that i was expecting worse, and wouldn't have been so unimpressed to begin with.
i went to town, to pick up some documents for my mom. while working out how the parking metre cards work, i activated a full hour (when i only needed ten minutes). i only remembered that i had something else to do once i'd already left, so it cost me a further half hour to park by greenmarket square.
where some guy in a wheelchair told me that he'd look after my car. now, not to say that i don't think he's a capable man, or that i don't approve of him making an effort. it's just that i think that being handicapped might affect his ability to protect my car against, well, pretty much anyone. except, maybe, offenders who are also in wheelchairs.
after much running around the flea market, and even going upstairs to wildfire, i discovered that there aren't people in this city who sell unobsequious ear studs.
go figure.
i got home, passed out for a bit, and woke up just in time to go to milnerton to fetch my mum.
i went to kauai for supper, and then to shadowslight's for monday night tv madness.
shadowslight compiled a really sweet cd for the car - rage against the machine - rage against the machine with nin - closer and some other stuff. very cool.
after tkd and a much-needed shower, i received a phone call from hi-fi corp, informing me that the regional manager okayed our getting a cash refund for the radio we bought.
this was really cool, but i had to hang around there for AGES getting it all sorted.
i finally left around the time that i should have been making my way to fetch my mom from work.
silly me, i got lost.
ignoring the waste of petrol, it also caused me to make it just in the nick of time - for rush hour. great.
my mother and i stopped in town on the way home, to visit some family friends. and have a drink (johnny walker, black label). anyone who knows me, knows that my alcohol tolerance is rather low.
i drove home. my mom made supper, which i had practically no time to eat. as soon as i finished, i rushed off to cavendish. the movie was starting at 19.45. i left home around 19.30. i arrived at the theatre, i think, at 19.55. either way, we (eighteen of us) made it in time for the last couple of ads.
equilibrium was #@!$ing BRILLIANT. there were many holes in the plot, and some continuity errors, but all in all it was very cool to watch, and the fight scenes were absolutely STUNNING.
after the movie, a few of us decided that lizards was a good idea. two of the guys came with me to get my car, and taught me a rather big lesson.
most of the time, in israel, i'll make a joke, and everyone gives me funny looks, like my sense of humour is not acceptable. with these guys, i barely got to finish my sentences - they were quick on the draw and we were all in sync. it's a culture difference. i MUST remember this when i return. i'll admit, israel's given me a mean streak a mile and a half wide, but there's elements of myself i don't wanna squash.
lizards was cool. towards the end, however, shadowslight and i truly began to shine. we played some SERIOUS pool - we were both in the zone, and were just hammering away at funny angles. that felt gooood.
*** 17th ***
my day started off with fighting drills. this is very, very, very, very tiring. and repetitive. and tiring.
not to mention the fact that i hadn't got much sleep the previous night...
i spent the majority of the day sleeping.
at some point in the afternoon i remembered to take my prayer shawl to the dry cleaners. it took about half a minute of argueing before i realized that what the women behind the counter was telling me was that there is no charge for religious items. interesting.
i then went to milnerton to pick up my mom. we stopped by a computer game store in the building, which is owned and run by to ex-israelis. we had a very interesting, yet pointless, political debate, but i discovered something really, really cool while there. two collections: king's quest with the laura bow games, and quest for glory. i really want those. it does mean installing windows 98 on my machine in israel, and so i would need a bigger harddrive, but i think i need that anyway.
after we went shopping at pick 'n pay, we returned home, and my second mom organized supper. while watching friends and eating, my sister rocked up, and we went downstairs to visit the apartment she's moving into: it's very, very nice.
*** 18th ***
tkd this morning was a severe lesson in patience. i know the first form so completely and utterly, that my brain switches off when i do it. this is the form that we spent the entire hour studying. the worst part was, i had to match timing with this girl who was learning it for the first time...
after a shower, i drove to claremont to pick up some (what turned out later to be) useless documents, and then drove back to mowbray, to shadowslight's workplace.
i realized, almost immediately after arriving, that i was starving, so i made a mission to champs for an R8 burger. and i have to admit that, while walking back eating this thing, all i could think of was sylvester stallone in demolition man, discussing the really good rat-burger.
we managed to set up the DDK on shadowslight's pc, and i began figuring out what goes where, and how, in terms of writing printer drivers.
i was there for quite a while, and managed to achieve, for all intents and purposes, nothing.
back to milnerton to get my mom. while there, some guy had the audacity to comment on my gloves! i #$@%ing LOVE my gloves, but mocking him back without him realizing it wasn't quite satisfying.
subjecting one's mum to system of a down for about twenty minutes is a form of evil. but i had to try.
she still doesn't like it.
i'm trying to chill with cheesy substances (lactose intolerance), so instead of ordering pizza, we stopped by texie's for hake & chips (i wanted a gatsby, but they were out of bread), before my mom dropped me off at shadowslight's for thursday night movies.
first up: aliens ii. very cool, but we did some very nasty things to it. f'rinstance, firstfallen's suggestion that the hands coming out of the floor were actually being held by an ingenious alien :).
afterwards, we played a really entertaining game of munchkin fu, before arad dropped me off home.
*** 19th ***
i knew we were having fight training, and was expecting a broken rib or two. fortunately, that didn't happen. however, i came out of it with a completely screwed up knee, and a pretty sore chest. we spent at least half an hour kicking each other in the sternum, pretty hard.
i dropped one of the guys off at the waterfront. while leaving the parking lot, some cute girl walking past the car gave me a really sweet smile.
don't get it.
on the way home, i stopped at a set of traffic lights, headbanging to one of the crazier songs. suddenly, i noticed an elderly couple in the car next to me, and this old man was holding a tiny dog on his lap, and the dog was staring at me.
he picked up the dog's paw and began waving at me, so i waved back. he then started telling me how his dog loves music. wonderful.
just then the music got a little harder. i was still headbanging, and this crazy old coot was STILL talking! i have no clue what he said, all i could do was smile and nod...
i went to the traffic department, to renew my license. some guy got hold of me as i walked in, and explained everything. nice.
the bitch was the eye test - my left eye is a hell of a lot weaker than my right, and everything appears just a little further away. crap.
on my way home, i stopped by the waterfront to have my watch adjusted. i discovered that if you're by yourself, there really is nothing to do there.
i fetched my mum from work, and we sat through some pretty heavy traffic. she'd been having an annoying day, so i convinced her to come with me for coffee. we went back to the waterfront, and found this really nice little place (don't remember the name).
we were joined by my aunt, who happened to be walking past.
while we were there i saw the primi piatti uniform for the first time - it is WAY cool! my niece works there, so i'm going to try to organize a couple: they're bright orange overalls! just my style.
i went to the synagogue for the first time in almost seven years. it was really weird - i had a couple of warm, fuzzy moments, but most of it was just as i'd remembered. dull and meaningless.
my mom pieced together a quick meal for us, and then it was off to play tekken at shadowslight's. i got my nephew to come along, as he's been trash-talking me for a couple of years. and he's good at it. turned out to be a good idea: firstfallen's playstation isn't chipped, so we wouldn't have been able to play. getting to the car in order to drive all the way back to sea point to pick up his, we were pissed upon heavily by god and his cronies. it felt like a scene from a really bad sailing movie.
we played tekken until shadowslight chucked us out at around 4am. it turned out to be more or less fair, and i think everyone else enjoyed it too. aeroplane and some friends of his rocked up at one stage, completely trashed, after trying to find the place for over half an hour. they then disappeared to find munchies, and came back for just long enough to say goodbye and return to the northern suburbs. so that one of them could meet up with some chick. not impressed.
*** 20th ***
i woke up really late, around 1pm i think, and spent the first few hours of my day eating. there wasn't much transition between breakfast and lunch - all i remember was being quite hungry.
i caught the south african version of the weakest link. this woman on the british version is mean, but she's really clever and quick. our one is as stupid as she is nasty - she couldn't even pronounce descartes, and her insults were pathetic. i heard worse when i was in primary school. hell, i said worse when i was in primary school.
talk about being hired based on looks.
i wasn't feeling too well, but my mom convinced me to go shopping with her. checkers sucks. and my head spinning didn't help, either.
we went over to my sister's place for coffee. my nephew set up a really nice nargila, with banana and melon tabacco, and my niece told us one of the funniest stories i've ever heard.
this happened sometime last week: some guy made a booking for a table at primi piatti, and he didn't show up. she didn't think he would, as he'd been completely $#@%ed when he'd made it (her description of how screwed up this guy was was hilarious, i'm guessing lsd though). she got drunk with her manager a couple of nights later, and she saw the same guy. so she went up to him and started screaming at him.
she then dragged this guy (who was trashed again, as well) to her manager, and made him apologize to her. apparently (she doesn't remember this, but i think her manager told her later) she slapped the poor oke!
well, i know one thing. this guy's never going to primi piatti ever again! :)
the four of us (not my mom) went to the waterfront to watch bruce almighty. unfortunately, i ran into krybabie and his girlfriend. i haven't spoken to this guy in ages (we used to be best friends) because, to put it simply, i don't like him. i think he's a complete asshole. anyway, he comes up to me, and ask me if everything's cool, but he does it in such a way that it was like staring at a sweet innocent puppy before you pull the trigger.
and after i told him everything was okay, he wanted a hug. i feel so dirty.
* SHUDDER *
we then went in to see the movie. it wasn't bad, and seeing the girl from jag dressed up so sexy, made the movie well worth seeing. as far as comedy goes, there were a couple of good scenes, but on the whole it wasn't my idea of a five-star film.
more coffee - we went to love, revenge and cappucino for, you guessed it, cappucino. well, i did anyway. my sister and her daughter ordered something chocolatey. aside from the girl talk, i had to get a lecture from both of them, on how i have to have a "talk" with her father when i get back. just the thought of which makes my toes curl, and my vision blurry.
i discovered that i wasn't the only person not let in on babyacid's birthday party plans. firstfallen and i arranged to go hunting for it together. i gave my nephew a ride to bantry bay, picked up firstfallen, and off to obs we went.
first stop, gandalf's. the music downstairs was okay, but the music in mordor was just freakin' WEIRD. really bad house music. in mordor.
we couldn't find anyone, so we decided to try cool runnings. yes, everyone was there. most of them slightly, err... tipsy.
serendipity was the name of the game - we walked in just in time to st-, uhh, remove the mints from the bill. we sat around for a few minutes before moving to gandalf's. where a fairly quick conversation concerning deja vu took place.
gandalf's was fun. at some point, the music turned from okay to good. at another point, it apparently went from good to excellent, but i'd left by then.
typical.
all sorts of interesting people joined us, and a good time was had by most. i only had two brandy-'n-cokes, and one shooter (of something sour, i think), and i did bounce around a little bit (i remember them playing some rage against the machine).
was having a little trouble following conversations (my ears are definitely damaged), and my mind was wondering a little. i was attempting to stick my tongue, tip first, down the back of my throat, when moonflake asked me if i was okay. so i explained myself. i'm SO glad that things that intrigue me can cause such amusement... :)
*** 21st ***
leaving was a bit difficult, as the people i wanted to say goodbye to were all over the place, and it took me two or three attempts.
the drive home was fine. really. i have trouble thinking, seeing, and generally just being when i've had something to drink, but i can always drive. i wonder if everyone thinks that?
i tried to update my logs. unsuccessfully.
i had yet another early wakeup. which was why i'd left gandalf's so early.
it's approximately a two hour drive to sandbaai. i was planning on sleeping in the car, but everything was just SO pretty! it also gave me and my mom time to talk about completely arbitrary things.
when we got to my uncle/aunt's place, we had some coffee, and then took a walk down to the beach. they all sat on a bench, while i took a kiddies' hike to some hidden rockpool, to sit and contemplate my navel. and wonder where all those weird insect-type creatures come from. it was incredible, but all i could think of was having her with me. in fact, i spent the rest of the day just wishing that she could see all of this, and understand why i can't leave this place for too long.
my uncle braaied for lunch. and ohmigod, it was fantastic! we had chops, and wors, and chicken, and it was all done to absolute perfection. i even went for thirds and fourths, in spite of my stomache.
* SHUDDER *
damn, that was gooood.
we all spent the next couple of hours chilling, sleeping, reading, and laying in the grass (they have their own private mini-kirstenbosch).
we went for a short drive to hermanus, where we watched the whales, which was very cool. i didn't get a close view of them, but what i did see was awesome. they're much more impressive when they're in the wild, doing what they do.
also, it was nice to be there before the festival starts - there weren't many tourists and everyone was relaxed.
after some coffee, and chocolate mousse, we drove home. hitting traffic on the way. it wasn't so bad though, as it was even prettier on the return journey. coming over the mountain, into elgin valley, is really amazing. screw new zealand, we have enough here! (lame lord of the rings reference)
i was fully intending to pass out when i got home, but duncs really wanted to play pool, so shadowslight and i obliged and we all met at stones in obs. duncs was a bit loud, but we were there for him (in essence), so we dealt with it. one really should learn to play before trash-talking people who are good in a game, 'cause it looks silly when you lose. at least he wasn't being too serious about it. we had fun.
*** 22nd ***
i had some difficulty in tkd - we were doing forms, and my body just wasn't in the mood to co-operate with me.
i got home, suddenly remembered (thank you nokia) a dentist appointment. an hour long dentist appointment.
let's just say i didn't really feel like it. it wasn't THAT bad, and it didn't hurt, but it really bothers me when someone puts a drill in your mouth and it sounds like it's going to come out the top of your skull, and in the end it has no visible effect.
the whole thing only took 25 minutes. not to sound ungrateful, or anything, it's just that i was expecting worse, and wouldn't have been so unimpressed to begin with.
i went to town, to pick up some documents for my mom. while working out how the parking metre cards work, i activated a full hour (when i only needed ten minutes). i only remembered that i had something else to do once i'd already left, so it cost me a further half hour to park by greenmarket square.
where some guy in a wheelchair told me that he'd look after my car. now, not to say that i don't think he's a capable man, or that i don't approve of him making an effort. it's just that i think that being handicapped might affect his ability to protect my car against, well, pretty much anyone. except, maybe, offenders who are also in wheelchairs.
after much running around the flea market, and even going upstairs to wildfire, i discovered that there aren't people in this city who sell unobsequious ear studs.
go figure.
i got home, passed out for a bit, and woke up just in time to go to milnerton to fetch my mum.
i went to kauai for supper, and then to shadowslight's for monday night tv madness.
shadowslight compiled a really sweet cd for the car - rage against the machine - rage against the machine with nin - closer and some other stuff. very cool.
Tuesday, September 16, 2003
16/09/03
*** 12th ***
i took my mum's computer to a more-capable-than-me friend of mine, to see if we could figure out what was wrong, and try to install win2k. he works for a computer company, so all tools on hand.
first things first, it was so filthy inside the case, we could barely identify basic parts. so we took an industrial air-blower, sat the naked pc outside, under a tree (i was having visions of a bird shitting on my motherboard - i'm sure it would be a first), and proceeded to violate it with way more air-pressure than i'm comfortable with.
we managed to blow off one of the cooler chips - the glue backing wasn't in a particularly good way anyway - which didn't help my level of enthusiasm.
i then had to run off to hi-fi corp, to organize a car radio for my mum. i paid for the radio and installation, but when i found the guy who does the installations, he informed that he couldn't do it, as it needs a radio specific to the car. so he gave me a map with directions to the place that could do it.
he also informed me of a second-hand one that would fit our current setup, but as far as we were concerned it was too late.
i got totally lost trying to follow the map. the damn thing had no road names on it, and i discovered later that i'd been reading it upside down. after getting very, VERY frustrated, i was told by my mom to forget it, and to go pick up something from her doctor. i made it to his offices as the secretary was locking the door - but she let me in and gave me what i needed.
no, not that need. in spite of some interesting suggestions, i'm definitely remaining faithful to her.
awww.
*** 13th ***
the day of the tekken. and something relatively insignificant (isn't everything?) before that.
oh, right. taekwondo. i arrived at the designated time, at the designated place, only to discover that it was grading, not training. two people were trying for their green belts (one up from yellow, but that's as much as i've been able to figure out). the two of us who weren't supposed to be there, were instructed to fight the two as part of their test.
when i watched the first fight, i almost had need of a clean pair of pants - these guys fight hard, but #$@%ing FAST - all i could think of, was my getting my bum handed to me on a plate in my first fight in well over two months.
however, when we actually started fighting, one or more of three things occurred: either time slowed down for me, i got faster, or he slowed down. either way, we had a fairly normal fight.
except for one thing. one of the most powerful kicks in taekwondo is the back kick. as i saw him coming for me, i turned and extended with full force (although neither of us was wearing protection, and i had been asked not to injure him). this shouldn't have been a problem, except that he jumped for his kick, and i hit him squarely in the nads.
in spite of my stopping as soon as i realized where i'd hit him, he flew back a little way, landing in fetal position. i was SERIOUSLY upset - it's never nice being involved in something like that. fortunately, he wasn't completely disabled, but it was crap nonetheless.
it was then on to firstfallen and phleep's place.
the day would've been much better had everyone turned up, but those that did made it quite the enjoyable afternoon. the main complaint was that i played too well - i don't know how to lose credibly.
i wonder if there's a faq online for that.
we also watched the tekken anime movie - it was totally crap, but good to laugh at. i just wish it hadn't made all the characters out to be a bunch of pansies, and had had more fighting in it.
firstfallen's squelch / gloop (lasagne) was very, very tasty. much appreciated.
*** 14th ***
i slept late, which was much needed, and had a really relaxing morning. i picked up my niece, and we went to the flea market, where we saw all sorts of interesting things (including ROGERS, a really strange "friend" of mine. he's been known to walk into the middle of a crowded dancefloor, and just sit on the floor. the ultimate in nerd-dom), and bought me a hat.
it took freakin' AGES to find that hat. but it's nice.
we went to my place for a bit. my mom then dropped me off at my buddy's (ok, you seriously have to give me a preferred nickname) office to check up on our computer, and drove off to constantia with my niece to pick up my niece's siblings.
on their way back, they picked me up again, and we went back to sea point. my mom went home, i drove back to the office. after a while we gave up on the system - we think there's a problem with the motherboard. so much for cheap fixes. so in the meanwhile we're staying with win98. yippee.
i took him home, and stopped by moonflake's for a few minutes on the way back, before going home to sleep (narrowly escaping pantless o' clock).
*** yesterday ***
taekwondo yesterday morning was a great way to wake up for the day. before we started, i spoke to our instructor about the ball-breaking on saturday, and he was adamant that it wasn't my fault. we then spent the entire hour working on just the back kick, which wasn't easy, but was most rewarding.
i went through to milnerton to fetch my mom, and drove back to town, where my mom picked up my sister's car. i went through to plumstead, and picked up a faceplate for the car radio we didn't have, and then to hi-fi corp, to return the one we did. it took a long time, but eventually i managed to persuade them to give me a credit note, and at least try to organize a cash refund. i still have to phone them to find out how that went.
i then got lost in athlone. three times. and being an ethnic minority didn't help - a police car drove past and looked at me as if they couldn't believe that a whitey would be on that side of the world.
after finally finding the place, the installation took about ten minutes, as we didn't have an instruction manual. but everything worked, and i was finally able to listen to system of a down while driving! i haven't changed cd's yet... it's a lot of fun to sit in rush-hour traffic, IF you have something to head-bang to.
i made my way to the airport, and sat (well, jumped up and down in my seat) for about ten minutes while waiting for my sister to arrive.
the drive home was pleasant, and as soon as i dropped her off at her place, i went back to town for monday night tv at shadowslight's.
it was really nice. i especially enjoyed playing with his cats (they're like dogs, but not as slobbering), and the bacon & guacomole pizza was good. i shouldn't have eaten the whole thing, though - it came back for vengeance later on. after i got home, i sat for about an hour on the wiki, and then passed out. cold.
*** today ***
traffic this morning was an absolute pleasure. it was probably even more kak than usual, but i had music so i didn't care. it's amazing how much more enjoyable driving is when it's not completely silent (ignoring your own humming / singing / whistling).
taekwondo was nice today. i walked in five minutes late, so i had to do fifty push-ups as punishment. my arms are still a little tender - i never do push-ups so it's an alien experience.
i received a really nice compliment though: i was asked by our instructor to teach one of the black-belts something.
/me pats himself on the back.
i took my mum's computer to a more-capable-than-me friend of mine, to see if we could figure out what was wrong, and try to install win2k. he works for a computer company, so all tools on hand.
first things first, it was so filthy inside the case, we could barely identify basic parts. so we took an industrial air-blower, sat the naked pc outside, under a tree (i was having visions of a bird shitting on my motherboard - i'm sure it would be a first), and proceeded to violate it with way more air-pressure than i'm comfortable with.
we managed to blow off one of the cooler chips - the glue backing wasn't in a particularly good way anyway - which didn't help my level of enthusiasm.
i then had to run off to hi-fi corp, to organize a car radio for my mum. i paid for the radio and installation, but when i found the guy who does the installations, he informed that he couldn't do it, as it needs a radio specific to the car. so he gave me a map with directions to the place that could do it.
he also informed me of a second-hand one that would fit our current setup, but as far as we were concerned it was too late.
i got totally lost trying to follow the map. the damn thing had no road names on it, and i discovered later that i'd been reading it upside down. after getting very, VERY frustrated, i was told by my mom to forget it, and to go pick up something from her doctor. i made it to his offices as the secretary was locking the door - but she let me in and gave me what i needed.
no, not that need. in spite of some interesting suggestions, i'm definitely remaining faithful to her.
awww.
*** 13th ***
the day of the tekken. and something relatively insignificant (isn't everything?) before that.
oh, right. taekwondo. i arrived at the designated time, at the designated place, only to discover that it was grading, not training. two people were trying for their green belts (one up from yellow, but that's as much as i've been able to figure out). the two of us who weren't supposed to be there, were instructed to fight the two as part of their test.
when i watched the first fight, i almost had need of a clean pair of pants - these guys fight hard, but #$@%ing FAST - all i could think of, was my getting my bum handed to me on a plate in my first fight in well over two months.
however, when we actually started fighting, one or more of three things occurred: either time slowed down for me, i got faster, or he slowed down. either way, we had a fairly normal fight.
except for one thing. one of the most powerful kicks in taekwondo is the back kick. as i saw him coming for me, i turned and extended with full force (although neither of us was wearing protection, and i had been asked not to injure him). this shouldn't have been a problem, except that he jumped for his kick, and i hit him squarely in the nads.
in spite of my stopping as soon as i realized where i'd hit him, he flew back a little way, landing in fetal position. i was SERIOUSLY upset - it's never nice being involved in something like that. fortunately, he wasn't completely disabled, but it was crap nonetheless.
it was then on to firstfallen and phleep's place.
the day would've been much better had everyone turned up, but those that did made it quite the enjoyable afternoon. the main complaint was that i played too well - i don't know how to lose credibly.
i wonder if there's a faq online for that.
we also watched the tekken anime movie - it was totally crap, but good to laugh at. i just wish it hadn't made all the characters out to be a bunch of pansies, and had had more fighting in it.
firstfallen's squelch / gloop (lasagne) was very, very tasty. much appreciated.
*** 14th ***
i slept late, which was much needed, and had a really relaxing morning. i picked up my niece, and we went to the flea market, where we saw all sorts of interesting things (including ROGERS, a really strange "friend" of mine. he's been known to walk into the middle of a crowded dancefloor, and just sit on the floor. the ultimate in nerd-dom), and bought me a hat.
it took freakin' AGES to find that hat. but it's nice.
we went to my place for a bit. my mom then dropped me off at my buddy's (ok, you seriously have to give me a preferred nickname) office to check up on our computer, and drove off to constantia with my niece to pick up my niece's siblings.
on their way back, they picked me up again, and we went back to sea point. my mom went home, i drove back to the office. after a while we gave up on the system - we think there's a problem with the motherboard. so much for cheap fixes. so in the meanwhile we're staying with win98. yippee.
i took him home, and stopped by moonflake's for a few minutes on the way back, before going home to sleep (narrowly escaping pantless o' clock).
*** yesterday ***
taekwondo yesterday morning was a great way to wake up for the day. before we started, i spoke to our instructor about the ball-breaking on saturday, and he was adamant that it wasn't my fault. we then spent the entire hour working on just the back kick, which wasn't easy, but was most rewarding.
i went through to milnerton to fetch my mom, and drove back to town, where my mom picked up my sister's car. i went through to plumstead, and picked up a faceplate for the car radio we didn't have, and then to hi-fi corp, to return the one we did. it took a long time, but eventually i managed to persuade them to give me a credit note, and at least try to organize a cash refund. i still have to phone them to find out how that went.
i then got lost in athlone. three times. and being an ethnic minority didn't help - a police car drove past and looked at me as if they couldn't believe that a whitey would be on that side of the world.
after finally finding the place, the installation took about ten minutes, as we didn't have an instruction manual. but everything worked, and i was finally able to listen to system of a down while driving! i haven't changed cd's yet... it's a lot of fun to sit in rush-hour traffic, IF you have something to head-bang to.
i made my way to the airport, and sat (well, jumped up and down in my seat) for about ten minutes while waiting for my sister to arrive.
the drive home was pleasant, and as soon as i dropped her off at her place, i went back to town for monday night tv at shadowslight's.
it was really nice. i especially enjoyed playing with his cats (they're like dogs, but not as slobbering), and the bacon & guacomole pizza was good. i shouldn't have eaten the whole thing, though - it came back for vengeance later on. after i got home, i sat for about an hour on the wiki, and then passed out. cold.
*** today ***
traffic this morning was an absolute pleasure. it was probably even more kak than usual, but i had music so i didn't care. it's amazing how much more enjoyable driving is when it's not completely silent (ignoring your own humming / singing / whistling).
taekwondo was nice today. i walked in five minutes late, so i had to do fifty push-ups as punishment. my arms are still a little tender - i never do push-ups so it's an alien experience.
i received a really nice compliment though: i was asked by our instructor to teach one of the black-belts something.
/me pats himself on the back.
Thursday, September 11, 2003
11/09/03
*** yesterday ***
gandalf's itself sucked - they played really dodgy hip-hop and jungle. mordor (upstairs) was pretty cool. i have no idea how to dance (neither does anyone else), so i was kinda uncomfortable at first, but i did have fun. and i saw a couple of people i've been itching (well, not really) to meet, and lots of arb metal freaks which made me feel at home.
some bastard there, just arrived from the sepultura concert, was carrying one of the drummer's drumsticks - lucky prick!
i decided to have a tequila, and was re-shocked when i discovered that it only costs R10 (like, about the same as a BAR of chocolate in israel), as opposed to R45 (about the cost of a fast-food meal in israel).
*** today ***
i woke up horribly this morning - i'm going to attribute it to having a drink and headbanging last night. i drove my mom to work, managed to just miss rush-hour traffic on the way back (almost got in the middle of a four car accident, though - i do hate bad drivers), and went to tkd.
fortunately, because there were only three of us, we spent the hour session stretching - it's been a long, long time, and i actually enjoy that kind of pain... they've taught us some good things in taekwondo.
when i got home, i had a shower, some strawberry pops (!), and then i just passed out for three hours, having some REALLY crazy, freaky, and outright disturbing dreams. and i'd been sleeping in a fairly awkward position, which didn't help much.
unfortunately, it means i haven't got enough time to do all the things i was meaning to do today...
go me.
*** later ***
i taped dragonball z and spongebob squarepants, and i'm waiting for my mum to finish watching the documentary on the twin towers so's i can watch them.
i went to cafe erte with SaGiRL, and we talked for a LONG time. she sent me a barrage of sms's, so when i got home i had a proper online sms conversation (i'm so not going to try teaching her to use irc), and now i'm downloading critical updates and wondering why ms outlook web access is so shitty - i can't delete my email for some reason, and i have limited space.
F$#%.
gandalf's itself sucked - they played really dodgy hip-hop and jungle. mordor (upstairs) was pretty cool. i have no idea how to dance (neither does anyone else), so i was kinda uncomfortable at first, but i did have fun. and i saw a couple of people i've been itching (well, not really) to meet, and lots of arb metal freaks which made me feel at home.
some bastard there, just arrived from the sepultura concert, was carrying one of the drummer's drumsticks - lucky prick!
i decided to have a tequila, and was re-shocked when i discovered that it only costs R10 (like, about the same as a BAR of chocolate in israel), as opposed to R45 (about the cost of a fast-food meal in israel).
*** today ***
i woke up horribly this morning - i'm going to attribute it to having a drink and headbanging last night. i drove my mom to work, managed to just miss rush-hour traffic on the way back (almost got in the middle of a four car accident, though - i do hate bad drivers), and went to tkd.
fortunately, because there were only three of us, we spent the hour session stretching - it's been a long, long time, and i actually enjoy that kind of pain... they've taught us some good things in taekwondo.
when i got home, i had a shower, some strawberry pops (!), and then i just passed out for three hours, having some REALLY crazy, freaky, and outright disturbing dreams. and i'd been sleeping in a fairly awkward position, which didn't help much.
unfortunately, it means i haven't got enough time to do all the things i was meaning to do today...
go me.
*** later ***
i taped dragonball z and spongebob squarepants, and i'm waiting for my mum to finish watching the documentary on the twin towers so's i can watch them.
i went to cafe erte with SaGiRL, and we talked for a LONG time. she sent me a barrage of sms's, so when i got home i had a proper online sms conversation (i'm so not going to try teaching her to use irc), and now i'm downloading critical updates and wondering why ms outlook web access is so shitty - i can't delete my email for some reason, and i have limited space.
F$#%.
Wednesday, September 10, 2003
10/09/03
hmmm. it feels as if it's been a long, long time since last wednesday (my last update), and much has happened to this li'l ol' brain, so i may not be able to remember things as accurately as i'd like.
one of the cuter things, though, is that while backing up my mum's computer, i discovered a partial journal entry from way, way back, in august '99.
it's of the date i wrote of in my post-hoc journal: my first trip, so i'm going to attempt to fuse the two at a some stage.
i have so little inclination to write these logs while i'm on holiday - even when i have nothing to do, it's so nice to just sit and stare out the windows...
we've had nothing but amazing sunsets the whole week.
*** 4th ***
i discovered, to my dismay, that i cannot install windows 2000 on my mum's pc, as there's something wrong with it. it would have been nice if the message had told me what specifically went wrong - i retried the installation with various combinations of hardware enabled, and they all failed.
so it's back to windows '98. but we have no drivers, and the rescue cd i made before i left in 2000 has gone missing.
i've been looking for things to do while i'm here, and shadowslight was telling me about something that he needs at work. drivers related, oddly enough.
i had the car, so i drove there for a visit. while we talked business, he burned me a really useful cd, with all sorts of funky programs for a newly installed computer.
i picked up my mom, of course going through my friend, mr. rush-hour traffic, and she dropped me off at shadowslight's house for our fortnightly movie night.
we watched clerks, which is a great film. and we watched all the dvd extras, which were cute.
instead of watching another movie, we played a game called munchkin fu, which is basically a spoof of magic: the gathering, and pokemon style card games.
instead of saying good night, and going home, three of us decided that playing pool would be a good idea. and it so was! i won most of my games (or at least, i didn't lose them - potting the black isn't a good way to finish), and generally just enjoyed the atmosphere, and looking at the pretty malay / indian girl at the table next to us. just looking, mind. i haven't been able to get her out of my mind the whole week, especially when i see good-looking women.
*** 5th ***
the most important part of my friday was going for a run. i haven't done anything more strenuous than playing counterstrike in a long time, and neither my muscles, nor my respiratory system, were prepared for the damage that i was about to inflict upon them.
after a hundred or so metres, i was buggered, but i carried on regardless, forcing myself, metre after metre (whether sprinting, jogging, or walking), to carry on.
eventually i found myself on the other end of mouille point. Very Far Away. i stopped and asked some guys if they would time fifteen (15) seconds for me, so that i could check my pulse. apparently their watches didn't work, because according to my count i should've been dead already.
and as tired and worn out as i was, i was barely sweating.
i then stretched for about fifteen minutes, with my muscles going into heavy spasm, and plenty of cramping. by the time i was done, there wasn't a fibre of my being that wasn't hurting.
i began the journey back. still attempting to run as fast as i can, when i got about halfway back i discovered that i had only half an hour in which to return home, shower, and get all the way to milnerton again.
i did my very best to sprint home - i could only run for small stretches, but i made it just in time.
my mum and i began the search for installion cds - there are quite a few boxes lying around labelled "arbitrary stuff", containing all sorts of surprises. one of the odd items that turned up, was a pine-cone given to me on (i think) the last day of matric (1998), by a girl a couple of grades below.
awww.
soon after, people began arriving for friday night supper. my cousins came first. after exhausting himself playing with a light switch, their little one passed out on the couch.
then came my sister's brood, along with her dodgy friend. who i shall refer to as dodgy friend.
dodgy friend was completely, utterly drunk. normally, she likes to test people, pushing them to see how much it takes to get them angry / upset. friday night she was even worse than usual.
that was incredibly annoying. also she'd acquired some pretty good dope, and kept trying to whisper that to me. she'd cup her hand over her mouth, and say, slowly and loudly, "hey, adam, i - have - some - really - good - stuff, it's - swazi."
when i attempted to shush her, she said (faster and way more quietly), "you're too paranoid. nobody cares!"
yeah, we can ignore my cousin, sitting right next to me, with this mortified expression on her face. genius.
supper itself was amazing (my second mom did GOOOOD), and aside from dodgy friend making some extremely unpleasant conversation, it went okay.
*** 6th ***
my legs were hurting when i woke up, but i got dressed and went to taekwondo anyway.
taekwondo here is on a totally different level from that in israel - they're way into fitness and strength, and they're also very, VERY polite. to an extreme.
i - was - DYING. i just couldn't keep up. saturday mornings are for the more advanced practitioners, and everyone else seemed only too happy abusing their bodies... i couldn't just stop. hell, i wasn't even given permission to get water about halfway through. we're spoiled in israel, we are.
the big mistake, however, was a very silly one: someone kicked a focus pad out of our instructor's hand, and it landed at my feet. my automatic, israeli reaction was to throw him the pad.
whoops.
as the pad left my hands, everyone, including me, gasped in shock - all i could think of was "oh my god! what have i done?!"
my aim was good, but as the instructor made no attempt to catch it, the pad landed at his feet. i then, abashed, slowly walked up to him and picked it up, but there is a specific way to give someone something, and i totally forgot how, so i had another reason to be embarrassed.
i still have to formally apologise, as i didn't get a chance at the end.
i left taekwondo in serious pain - i pulled both major muscles in each leg, so walking became unbearable.
during the two hour tkd lesson, we had a half an hour talk by some guy from the AGA (AIDS Global Advocacy, i think), from new york, rattling off all sorts of statistics about HIV/AIDS and giving us sage advice.
i suspected from the beginning that he was infected, so when he told us i wasn't surprised. what really took my breath away, was when he told us that he's 58 years old - he looks like he's in his early 30's!
"no way," we all said.
after tkd, shadowslight picked me up from my place, and off we went to forest hill - the most absurdly large university res complex i could imagine. there are seven buildings!! crazy...
oh, and shadowlight's driving is really not as bad as everyone makes out.
anyway, there were relatively few CLAWcreatures at the party, and i ended up sitting in the corner with the girl who gave me the pine-cone i mentioned earlier.
is that not a freaky coincidence?!
the food was good - unfortunately, i only found my shrimp once i'd already eaten all the noodles, but hey... and the white-rabbit sweets always go down well!
duncan arrived, i believe, during the let's-throw-sweets-into-some-girls-cleavage game, and we began the tekken tournament. okay, we first had to carry the tv and playstation up a couple of flights of stairs (with me whining about my legs all the way - EVERY step hurt). synkronos joined us, and we soon had a merry little session going.
the kid with the mohawk, who's place we were playing in, consistently beat me with king (i was using anna), and we definitely need a rematch. other than that, i won almost all my games. my hands were shaking a bit, though, as it's been a while and i do have to take care of my reputation :)
orange-juice's cousin (i can't think of a nick for her) offered me a ride home, but due to her not-so-l33t driving skills (which i think are intentional) i had to drive. interesting. her car's name is brumhilda, which at first was a little worrying, but i kinda got used to it fairly quickly.
a little later, i went shopping with my mom, and we bought a really cute little fly gun: i stuns them from 30 - 60cm away! requires some aiming skills, however.
i went over to dirk diggler's chick's place, where we watched the tail end of me, myself and irene, and ordered st. elmo's subs for supper (very nice). as soon as the kids went to bed, the bong came out...
four hits later, and i was so stoned i couldn't move. i stopped being able to feel my legs (a very good thing), but unfortunately, i was lying across a single couch (a very bad thing), so when i left at 3am my legs were in a slightly worse state...
i remember feeling very good, and laughing my ass off at some comedians, although i'm certain if i'd been sober i wouldn't have found it at all funny.
i remembered to floss before going to bed.
*** 7th ***
went with my mom and aunt for bottomless coffee (2 cups) and chicken-mayo sandwiches at starke ayres. on my way out, i walked straight past ork_khrist: i wasn't looking in his direction, but even if i had been, i almost wouldn't have recognized him - he's looking human! all neat and tidy, very strange. fortunately, he saw me, so we talked for a few seconds before my mum became impatient and phoned me.
*** 8th ***
i paid a really sucky visit to the dentist, which achieved nothing and got me two more appointments (?). i spent the rest of the day watching tv and reading (the jester - james patterson and andrew gross).
after my mom returned from work, i got use of the car, so i drove to shadowslight's for monday night tv, hawaiian pizza, and a mint magnum.
the city at sunset from his place is absolutely phenomenal.
*** yesterday ***
i woke up for early morning torture - i made myself jungle oats for breakfast, packed my bag for tkd, and walked in the rain (more of a drizzle, really) to the bus shelter.
some girl walked across the road, to the shelter, wearing her tkd pants, so i commented that training in wet pants would be a bitch. when someone asked where the bus was, i asked her if we would be on time, and she said that we would.
she was completely surprised to see me at tkd. i'd thought that what i'd said would've given it away.
training was only one hour, but it felt like four. we worked so hard, and did so many painful things... about halfway through i pulled a muscle in my back, but at least my legs are working again.
sort of.
the last exercise literally almost killed me. i couldn't see straight, i was having trouble breathing, and my body just refused to carry on. the others with me even tried to help me, to no avail... i did score a ride home, though, so i can't complain too much.
when i got home, it took me a while before i'd regained enough energy to take a shower, and after putting on clean, warm clothing i was still sore, tired, and feeling a bit sick.
i spent the rest of the day looking for a massage (damn massage therapy for becoming so popular - everyone's fully booked), and otherwise did nothing but read and watch tv.
spongebob squarepants totally r0xx0rs.
when my mom got home we moved garages - this involved a bit of heavy lifting, so i got some more exercise. yippee. we then went to a presentation entitled "he's a jew too", about the connection (conflict) in israel between judaism as a nationality and judaism as a religion. interesting, but all the people involved were from jerusalem, which is quite isolated from the rest of the country.
oh well.
*** today ***
it's 01.25 and i'm still not in bed - i'm busy installing ie6 and it looks like it's gonna take a while. damn dial-up.
*** later ***
tkd this morning was much, much easier (ie. my legs aren't broken). we just did forms, and i was constantly reminded by our instructor that we do it differently here. as if i couldn't see that for myself.
i went to the oral hygienist today, which is probably the reason i've been pigging out on chocolates for most of it.
dragonball z is cool, hunter x hunter is better, and also suitable for kids.
dirk diggler just left - he came over hours ago for a quick visit, and my mom and i conned him into some heavy lifting. our old garage is now completely empty.
and while he was here we purchased a pair of goggles online for me, from the link in my favourites. we decided on black-framed wolfpack. i can't wait for them to arrive! i only hope they'll get here before i leave.
with my luck...
aside from that, and watching too much tv, i can't think of anything else i did today. i have to find out about the sepultura concert afterparty - the concert was sold out before i got here, but i may as well get something...
one of the cuter things, though, is that while backing up my mum's computer, i discovered a partial journal entry from way, way back, in august '99.
it's of the date i wrote of in my post-hoc journal: my first trip, so i'm going to attempt to fuse the two at a some stage.
i have so little inclination to write these logs while i'm on holiday - even when i have nothing to do, it's so nice to just sit and stare out the windows...
we've had nothing but amazing sunsets the whole week.
*** 4th ***
i discovered, to my dismay, that i cannot install windows 2000 on my mum's pc, as there's something wrong with it. it would have been nice if the message had told me what specifically went wrong - i retried the installation with various combinations of hardware enabled, and they all failed.
so it's back to windows '98. but we have no drivers, and the rescue cd i made before i left in 2000 has gone missing.
i've been looking for things to do while i'm here, and shadowslight was telling me about something that he needs at work. drivers related, oddly enough.
i had the car, so i drove there for a visit. while we talked business, he burned me a really useful cd, with all sorts of funky programs for a newly installed computer.
i picked up my mom, of course going through my friend, mr. rush-hour traffic, and she dropped me off at shadowslight's house for our fortnightly movie night.
we watched clerks, which is a great film. and we watched all the dvd extras, which were cute.
instead of watching another movie, we played a game called munchkin fu, which is basically a spoof of magic: the gathering, and pokemon style card games.
instead of saying good night, and going home, three of us decided that playing pool would be a good idea. and it so was! i won most of my games (or at least, i didn't lose them - potting the black isn't a good way to finish), and generally just enjoyed the atmosphere, and looking at the pretty malay / indian girl at the table next to us. just looking, mind. i haven't been able to get her out of my mind the whole week, especially when i see good-looking women.
*** 5th ***
the most important part of my friday was going for a run. i haven't done anything more strenuous than playing counterstrike in a long time, and neither my muscles, nor my respiratory system, were prepared for the damage that i was about to inflict upon them.
after a hundred or so metres, i was buggered, but i carried on regardless, forcing myself, metre after metre (whether sprinting, jogging, or walking), to carry on.
eventually i found myself on the other end of mouille point. Very Far Away. i stopped and asked some guys if they would time fifteen (15) seconds for me, so that i could check my pulse. apparently their watches didn't work, because according to my count i should've been dead already.
and as tired and worn out as i was, i was barely sweating.
i then stretched for about fifteen minutes, with my muscles going into heavy spasm, and plenty of cramping. by the time i was done, there wasn't a fibre of my being that wasn't hurting.
i began the journey back. still attempting to run as fast as i can, when i got about halfway back i discovered that i had only half an hour in which to return home, shower, and get all the way to milnerton again.
i did my very best to sprint home - i could only run for small stretches, but i made it just in time.
my mum and i began the search for installion cds - there are quite a few boxes lying around labelled "arbitrary stuff", containing all sorts of surprises. one of the odd items that turned up, was a pine-cone given to me on (i think) the last day of matric (1998), by a girl a couple of grades below.
awww.
soon after, people began arriving for friday night supper. my cousins came first. after exhausting himself playing with a light switch, their little one passed out on the couch.
then came my sister's brood, along with her dodgy friend. who i shall refer to as dodgy friend.
dodgy friend was completely, utterly drunk. normally, she likes to test people, pushing them to see how much it takes to get them angry / upset. friday night she was even worse than usual.
that was incredibly annoying. also she'd acquired some pretty good dope, and kept trying to whisper that to me. she'd cup her hand over her mouth, and say, slowly and loudly, "hey, adam, i - have - some - really - good - stuff, it's - swazi."
when i attempted to shush her, she said (faster and way more quietly), "you're too paranoid. nobody cares!"
yeah, we can ignore my cousin, sitting right next to me, with this mortified expression on her face. genius.
supper itself was amazing (my second mom did GOOOOD), and aside from dodgy friend making some extremely unpleasant conversation, it went okay.
*** 6th ***
my legs were hurting when i woke up, but i got dressed and went to taekwondo anyway.
taekwondo here is on a totally different level from that in israel - they're way into fitness and strength, and they're also very, VERY polite. to an extreme.
i - was - DYING. i just couldn't keep up. saturday mornings are for the more advanced practitioners, and everyone else seemed only too happy abusing their bodies... i couldn't just stop. hell, i wasn't even given permission to get water about halfway through. we're spoiled in israel, we are.
the big mistake, however, was a very silly one: someone kicked a focus pad out of our instructor's hand, and it landed at my feet. my automatic, israeli reaction was to throw him the pad.
whoops.
as the pad left my hands, everyone, including me, gasped in shock - all i could think of was "oh my god! what have i done?!"
my aim was good, but as the instructor made no attempt to catch it, the pad landed at his feet. i then, abashed, slowly walked up to him and picked it up, but there is a specific way to give someone something, and i totally forgot how, so i had another reason to be embarrassed.
i still have to formally apologise, as i didn't get a chance at the end.
i left taekwondo in serious pain - i pulled both major muscles in each leg, so walking became unbearable.
during the two hour tkd lesson, we had a half an hour talk by some guy from the AGA (AIDS Global Advocacy, i think), from new york, rattling off all sorts of statistics about HIV/AIDS and giving us sage advice.
i suspected from the beginning that he was infected, so when he told us i wasn't surprised. what really took my breath away, was when he told us that he's 58 years old - he looks like he's in his early 30's!
"no way," we all said.
after tkd, shadowslight picked me up from my place, and off we went to forest hill - the most absurdly large university res complex i could imagine. there are seven buildings!! crazy...
oh, and shadowlight's driving is really not as bad as everyone makes out.
anyway, there were relatively few CLAWcreatures at the party, and i ended up sitting in the corner with the girl who gave me the pine-cone i mentioned earlier.
is that not a freaky coincidence?!
the food was good - unfortunately, i only found my shrimp once i'd already eaten all the noodles, but hey... and the white-rabbit sweets always go down well!
duncan arrived, i believe, during the let's-throw-sweets-into-some-girls-cleavage game, and we began the tekken tournament. okay, we first had to carry the tv and playstation up a couple of flights of stairs (with me whining about my legs all the way - EVERY step hurt). synkronos joined us, and we soon had a merry little session going.
the kid with the mohawk, who's place we were playing in, consistently beat me with king (i was using anna), and we definitely need a rematch. other than that, i won almost all my games. my hands were shaking a bit, though, as it's been a while and i do have to take care of my reputation :)
orange-juice's cousin (i can't think of a nick for her) offered me a ride home, but due to her not-so-l33t driving skills (which i think are intentional) i had to drive. interesting. her car's name is brumhilda, which at first was a little worrying, but i kinda got used to it fairly quickly.
a little later, i went shopping with my mom, and we bought a really cute little fly gun: i stuns them from 30 - 60cm away! requires some aiming skills, however.
i went over to dirk diggler's chick's place, where we watched the tail end of me, myself and irene, and ordered st. elmo's subs for supper (very nice). as soon as the kids went to bed, the bong came out...
four hits later, and i was so stoned i couldn't move. i stopped being able to feel my legs (a very good thing), but unfortunately, i was lying across a single couch (a very bad thing), so when i left at 3am my legs were in a slightly worse state...
i remember feeling very good, and laughing my ass off at some comedians, although i'm certain if i'd been sober i wouldn't have found it at all funny.
i remembered to floss before going to bed.
*** 7th ***
went with my mom and aunt for bottomless coffee (2 cups) and chicken-mayo sandwiches at starke ayres. on my way out, i walked straight past ork_khrist: i wasn't looking in his direction, but even if i had been, i almost wouldn't have recognized him - he's looking human! all neat and tidy, very strange. fortunately, he saw me, so we talked for a few seconds before my mum became impatient and phoned me.
*** 8th ***
i paid a really sucky visit to the dentist, which achieved nothing and got me two more appointments (?). i spent the rest of the day watching tv and reading (the jester - james patterson and andrew gross).
after my mom returned from work, i got use of the car, so i drove to shadowslight's for monday night tv, hawaiian pizza, and a mint magnum.
the city at sunset from his place is absolutely phenomenal.
*** yesterday ***
i woke up for early morning torture - i made myself jungle oats for breakfast, packed my bag for tkd, and walked in the rain (more of a drizzle, really) to the bus shelter.
some girl walked across the road, to the shelter, wearing her tkd pants, so i commented that training in wet pants would be a bitch. when someone asked where the bus was, i asked her if we would be on time, and she said that we would.
she was completely surprised to see me at tkd. i'd thought that what i'd said would've given it away.
training was only one hour, but it felt like four. we worked so hard, and did so many painful things... about halfway through i pulled a muscle in my back, but at least my legs are working again.
sort of.
the last exercise literally almost killed me. i couldn't see straight, i was having trouble breathing, and my body just refused to carry on. the others with me even tried to help me, to no avail... i did score a ride home, though, so i can't complain too much.
when i got home, it took me a while before i'd regained enough energy to take a shower, and after putting on clean, warm clothing i was still sore, tired, and feeling a bit sick.
i spent the rest of the day looking for a massage (damn massage therapy for becoming so popular - everyone's fully booked), and otherwise did nothing but read and watch tv.
spongebob squarepants totally r0xx0rs.
when my mom got home we moved garages - this involved a bit of heavy lifting, so i got some more exercise. yippee. we then went to a presentation entitled "he's a jew too", about the connection (conflict) in israel between judaism as a nationality and judaism as a religion. interesting, but all the people involved were from jerusalem, which is quite isolated from the rest of the country.
oh well.
*** today ***
it's 01.25 and i'm still not in bed - i'm busy installing ie6 and it looks like it's gonna take a while. damn dial-up.
*** later ***
tkd this morning was much, much easier (ie. my legs aren't broken). we just did forms, and i was constantly reminded by our instructor that we do it differently here. as if i couldn't see that for myself.
i went to the oral hygienist today, which is probably the reason i've been pigging out on chocolates for most of it.
dragonball z is cool, hunter x hunter is better, and also suitable for kids.
dirk diggler just left - he came over hours ago for a quick visit, and my mom and i conned him into some heavy lifting. our old garage is now completely empty.
and while he was here we purchased a pair of goggles online for me, from the link in my favourites. we decided on black-framed wolfpack. i can't wait for them to arrive! i only hope they'll get here before i leave.
with my luck...
aside from that, and watching too much tv, i can't think of anything else i did today. i have to find out about the sepultura concert afterparty - the concert was sold out before i got here, but i may as well get something...
Wednesday, September 03, 2003
03/09/03
*** 31st ***
i don't really recall much about sunday. i was meant to visit my cousin, who cancelled, and then went with my mum to have supper with some family friends. which was really nice. although i was the designated driver, i still got a bit tipsy, and almost fell off my chair when i sat down... thanks to the gods nobody (ie. my mum) noticed.
*** 1st ***
i spent the morning hacking and coughing, and most of the day in front of the tv, reading.
i watched the first fifteen minutes of casablanca, which looks really good! i always thought it was about a guy named casablanca...
i made my way to cape technikon, to visit a friend of mine. he was really busy, so i hung around and we talked while he worked, when he finished we moved over to mr. pickwick's, for a quick coffee, before i got on the road to milnerton to fetch my mum.
with stop-go traffic all the way.
i joined moonflake and shadowslight for monday night tv again. i had a bacon & avo pizza, medium size, for R29.
it took a while for the price to sink in.
oh, and it was AWESOME pizza.
*** yesterday ***
i finally got to bed around 2am.
i was woken around 8am, and given about ten minutes to get ready before driving my mother to work, so i could get the car for the day.
my cough was still aggravated, but everything felt much, much better than in the previous few days. the lung butter's still there, but it's not moving around as much.
i went to two banks, attempting to open an account just for the purpose of internet purchases, and was refused dice both times (umm, i'm trying to play with the expression "no dice").
it took effort, on my part, just to be refused... a tad disappointing.
i met up with campey on campus (should write a song with that title), and we went to the cafeteria for some coffee. i managed to spill samoosa juice (curry, foolish human) on my GIR shirt.
grrr.
and a bee bathed in my coffee.
grrr.
after borrowing campey's student card, i left for the library, with the intention of learning about this new-ish microsoft voodoo, .NET.
i got lost in the library. it took me a while just to figure out that i was in completely the wrong place, and then a (much shorter) while to figure out how to use the search tools, which aren't labelled in any useful way.
i then took the useless part of the book's library code to the librarian, who fortunately managed to find it anyway.
and now i know how to use the library. i'm so proud of me!
i sat for about half an hour, until i decided that i now know enough to use .NET in any language: whatever they call it, think of it all as java, and everything works out just fine.
actually, from that point of view, it would appear that m$ has managed to do a good thing. but i'm sure the demons will pop out of the stonework soon enough...
i returned the book, and moved over to NCc. (IMHO, a much better way of writing Nescafe Cafe Cafe Cafe, as it includes the echo effect). Met up with a few CLAWcreatures while waiting for moonflake to arrive. which she did.
about this time the puns began flowing freely from my lips, and only slowed, much later, under extreme duress.
after a while of catching up, and poking fun at tall people, we went to get sandwiches for lunch, and paid a visit to campey and d@vid, who were all Very Busy.
moonbase commander is a very cool game.
moonflake gave me a ride to my car, and my trusty steed hobbled me through some more stop-go traffic for the next few ages, and deposited me outside my mom's office.
and there our long-faced metaphor ends.
getting directions for my cousin's place was a complete nightmare, and after much aggravation i got in the car, with only a rough idea of where i was going.
the completely useless drivers on the road didn't improve my mood. the only thing that kept me relatively sane was the other drivers also becoming irritated with the useless ones, so there were a few of us, chasing them, howling in rage.
after only one minor error, lasting about two or three kilometres at the most, i found what (or where) i was looking for.
my cousin and his girlfriend are staying in a large, pretty apartment, with lightswitches that make sense, and a ps2 with gta3 (vice city).
i'd seen gta3 before, but i'd never played it, and i must say it's just as cool as gta2, with better graphics, vehicles, and weapons.
couldn't ask for much more.
we had grand lasagne while watching saturday night fever (one of my favourites), and i thoroughly enjoyed myself.
when i got home, my mom and i started watching alice in wonderland (whoopi goldberg version), which i'd only seen about five minutes of with sandman -
that night we went to lizards, and he introduced me to a friend of his, using (as is normal) his first name only.
i had no way of knowing that this was a man with a traumatizing full name, and when he said his first name, i quoted "well, that's not your fault."
he then attempted to bludgeon me to death with a pool cue.
i passed out soon after that line, and only woke after the movie had ended - so i took my medication (for the cold, you scum), and went to bed.
*** today ***
this morning, the lung butter came back, with great vengeance and a bit of furious anger.
i read a bit, watched some tv, did some sit-ups and push-ups in lieu of going out and getting some real exercise, watched alice in wonderland, and i'm currently attempting to figure out what the rest of my day is going to look like.
alice in wonderland, the whoopi goldberg version, is at some points extremely in tune with the book. however, the majority of it, including the moral of the story, is tone deaf. THERE IS NO MORAL.
that having been said, i quite enjoyed it (when i could keep my eyes open, i had to keep rewinding), and it had a great cast (i only wish they would have included there names in the credits). the girl who played alice reminds me a lot of russel crowe.
go figure.
i went to town to pick up some stuff from a friend, played around online for a bit, and then drove him home.
i watched caddyshack, which was cute, but not very funny, and passed out soon after.
i don't really recall much about sunday. i was meant to visit my cousin, who cancelled, and then went with my mum to have supper with some family friends. which was really nice. although i was the designated driver, i still got a bit tipsy, and almost fell off my chair when i sat down... thanks to the gods nobody (ie. my mum) noticed.
*** 1st ***
i spent the morning hacking and coughing, and most of the day in front of the tv, reading.
i watched the first fifteen minutes of casablanca, which looks really good! i always thought it was about a guy named casablanca...
i made my way to cape technikon, to visit a friend of mine. he was really busy, so i hung around and we talked while he worked, when he finished we moved over to mr. pickwick's, for a quick coffee, before i got on the road to milnerton to fetch my mum.
with stop-go traffic all the way.
i joined moonflake and shadowslight for monday night tv again. i had a bacon & avo pizza, medium size, for R29.
it took a while for the price to sink in.
oh, and it was AWESOME pizza.
*** yesterday ***
i finally got to bed around 2am.
i was woken around 8am, and given about ten minutes to get ready before driving my mother to work, so i could get the car for the day.
my cough was still aggravated, but everything felt much, much better than in the previous few days. the lung butter's still there, but it's not moving around as much.
i went to two banks, attempting to open an account just for the purpose of internet purchases, and was refused dice both times (umm, i'm trying to play with the expression "no dice").
it took effort, on my part, just to be refused... a tad disappointing.
i met up with campey on campus (should write a song with that title), and we went to the cafeteria for some coffee. i managed to spill samoosa juice (curry, foolish human) on my GIR shirt.
grrr.
and a bee bathed in my coffee.
grrr.
after borrowing campey's student card, i left for the library, with the intention of learning about this new-ish microsoft voodoo, .NET.
i got lost in the library. it took me a while just to figure out that i was in completely the wrong place, and then a (much shorter) while to figure out how to use the search tools, which aren't labelled in any useful way.
i then took the useless part of the book's library code to the librarian, who fortunately managed to find it anyway.
and now i know how to use the library. i'm so proud of me!
i sat for about half an hour, until i decided that i now know enough to use .NET in any language: whatever they call it, think of it all as java, and everything works out just fine.
actually, from that point of view, it would appear that m$ has managed to do a good thing. but i'm sure the demons will pop out of the stonework soon enough...
i returned the book, and moved over to NCc. (IMHO, a much better way of writing Nescafe Cafe Cafe Cafe, as it includes the echo effect). Met up with a few CLAWcreatures while waiting for moonflake to arrive. which she did.
about this time the puns began flowing freely from my lips, and only slowed, much later, under extreme duress.
after a while of catching up, and poking fun at tall people, we went to get sandwiches for lunch, and paid a visit to campey and d@vid, who were all Very Busy.
moonbase commander is a very cool game.
moonflake gave me a ride to my car, and my trusty steed hobbled me through some more stop-go traffic for the next few ages, and deposited me outside my mom's office.
and there our long-faced metaphor ends.
getting directions for my cousin's place was a complete nightmare, and after much aggravation i got in the car, with only a rough idea of where i was going.
the completely useless drivers on the road didn't improve my mood. the only thing that kept me relatively sane was the other drivers also becoming irritated with the useless ones, so there were a few of us, chasing them, howling in rage.
after only one minor error, lasting about two or three kilometres at the most, i found what (or where) i was looking for.
my cousin and his girlfriend are staying in a large, pretty apartment, with lightswitches that make sense, and a ps2 with gta3 (vice city).
i'd seen gta3 before, but i'd never played it, and i must say it's just as cool as gta2, with better graphics, vehicles, and weapons.
couldn't ask for much more.
we had grand lasagne while watching saturday night fever (one of my favourites), and i thoroughly enjoyed myself.
when i got home, my mom and i started watching alice in wonderland (whoopi goldberg version), which i'd only seen about five minutes of with sandman -
that night we went to lizards, and he introduced me to a friend of his, using (as is normal) his first name only.
i had no way of knowing that this was a man with a traumatizing full name, and when he said his first name, i quoted "well, that's not your fault."
he then attempted to bludgeon me to death with a pool cue.
i passed out soon after that line, and only woke after the movie had ended - so i took my medication (for the cold, you scum), and went to bed.
*** today ***
this morning, the lung butter came back, with great vengeance and a bit of furious anger.
i read a bit, watched some tv, did some sit-ups and push-ups in lieu of going out and getting some real exercise, watched alice in wonderland, and i'm currently attempting to figure out what the rest of my day is going to look like.
alice in wonderland, the whoopi goldberg version, is at some points extremely in tune with the book. however, the majority of it, including the moral of the story, is tone deaf. THERE IS NO MORAL.
that having been said, i quite enjoyed it (when i could keep my eyes open, i had to keep rewinding), and it had a great cast (i only wish they would have included there names in the credits). the girl who played alice reminds me a lot of russel crowe.
go figure.
i went to town to pick up some stuff from a friend, played around online for a bit, and then drove him home.
i watched caddyshack, which was cute, but not very funny, and passed out soon after.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)