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...