The speed of dark

The speed of dark

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I feel weird

[Mar. 2nd, 2006|10:40 am]

[	Current Mood	\|	weird	]
[	Current Music	\|	Death Cab for Cutie - Bend to Squares	]

I hate it when I have a busy day ahead of me, I plan excessively to make sure everything goes according to plan, and then one small thing goes wrong.

Even if it doesn't affect the rest of my plans (today's one hasn't), I get a feeling of incompleteness for the rest of the day.

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In case anybody was wondering...

[Feb. 16th, 2006|04:24 pm]

[	Current Mood	\|	tired	]
[	Current Music	\|	Death Cab for Cutie - Why'd You Want to Live Here?	]

Semester 1, 2006

Management 301 - Strategic Management
Management 301 - Financial Management
Economics 301 - Econometrics
Economics 301 - International Trade Theory and Policy
Mathematical Statistics 201 - How to Fuck Mike Over

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Happy Valentines Day

[Feb. 14th, 2006|06:48 pm]

[	Current Mood	\|	calm	]
[	Current Music	\|	Sleater-Kinney - Funeral Song	]

I'm not going to fly into the usual 'this holiday was invented by greeting card companies' yodel.

I've already received sms's wishing me happy 'Single Awareness Day' and so forth.

There is an Anti-Valentines Party at De Taphuijs tonight. 'All you can funnel for R20'.

I've run into a lot of people moping around, saying they have no one to share the day with, woe is them.

It's just another day to me. Last night, Bruce and Matt spent quite a while trying to worm a confession out of me, but I honestly had nothing to tell them... no love interests, really. I don't think I've ever had one around Valentines day, so I'm not bothered about it. I mean, does one really need an excuse like Valentines Day to make a move? I guess it gives some people courage. Let all the couples enjoy the day, good for them! I don't have any deep seeded hatred for they day, so I'm just waiting for the year when I'll have someone to share it with.

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Back in Gtown	[Feb. 11th, 2006\|09:39 am]
I don't have any internet in my room yet. That'll only happen sometime next week, I think, so I'm reduced to blogging in the uncomfort of a public lab! glances over shoulder I registered for my subjects today, but I still have a big clash which doesn't seem to be sorting itself out. And it's all thanks to Stats. I have to wait until Monday to see what I can do about it. sigh So, nothing interesting is happening in Grahamstown, otherwise. Last night: pre-drinks at Liane's digs. Then street party with foam and drunk people. Night before: pre-drinks in res, went out in the regular fashion. I'm so over the little half baked clubs in Grahamstown. Perhaps that's a good thing - I need to work harder this year!
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Bean Bag Bohemia

[Feb. 5th, 2006|09:45 pm]

[	Current Mood	\|	satisfied	]
[	Current Music	\|	Babyshambles - Albion	]

Good taste is the enemy of creativity - Pablo Picasso

After a day of walking around some of Durban's more arty type flea markets and stores, I decided it was time we went to Bean Bag Bohemia, 'the place which celebrates it's birthday in November, but is more Pisces by behaviour', for supper. My mother had wanted to go for a while, my father had never heard of the place. It's quite renowned for it's food and atmosphere, and has played host to the likes of Alannis Morrisette, the Goo Goo Dolls and Lenny Kravitz.

It's set a nineteenth century building, a national monument, on Windermere Road. The downstairs area features a bar and café, and up the rickety staircase was the restaurant. No two chairs at any table were the same. The floor was wobbly and the ceilings high. The walls are decorated with art pieces, most of which are for sale, as well as a few quotes. The room we sat in was adorned with fantastic mosaics and mirrors.

The food was divine! I had a Millionaire's Pasta, with prawns, smoked salmon, peppadews, penne and roe (fish eggs), which was really good. Other items on the menu included 'Really Posh Macaroni Cheese' and 'Mooi [Afrikaans for beautiful] Potato Salad'. My mother kept looking around and frowning at the people. She pointed out the weird shirt one guy was wearing, and I wondered if I should draw her attention to the fact that I was wearing a shirt I ordered all the way from America [Threadless] because I thought it was weird and cool. I asked her why she has a fear of the unusal, and she just said it was so different and weird. She claims she enjoyed it, though.Who knows? I had a fantastic time, anyway, and look forward to going again.

In all art there is either plagiarism or revolution - Paul Gauguin

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Yes

[Feb. 2nd, 2006|05:48 pm]

[	Current Mood	\|	peaceful	]
[	Current Music	\|	Radiohead - Pyramid Song	]

Sadly, I won't be adding to my devilishly good looks with a pair of emo glasses just yet. They had some really nice ones in the shop, but my eyes are fine, according to the tester.

Today was fun. A friend and I spent just about the whole day watching seasons one through three of Black Books (omg black bux!!). I had seen limited episodes. That show is too damn funny!

I go back to university next week. I can't beleive I'm going into third year already! But it should be good, I found out that my friend John (who is on the house committee) managed to get me into a really kickass room.

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Ma Hayer

[Jan. 31st, 2006|12:57 pm]

[	Current Mood	\|	distressed	]
[	Current Music	\|	On the Radio: Black Eyed Peas - My Humps	]

I hate haircuts so much. I'm filled with dread the minute I make the appointment.

I sit in the huge, uncomfortable armchairs and look at all the various customers, thinking: 'If I was the hairdresser, I wouldn't cut his hair'. 'Gross, just look at that woman's hair. I'd never touch it!' And then I start wondering what the hairdressers think when they have to touch my hair. I mean, it's clean, but I find something so fundamentally wrong about handling a stranger's hair. I feel worst for the poor girls who wash the hair before it's cut.

Then, I don't mind the talking. I really don't. As long as the hairdresser initiates it, I'm quite happy to listen to her suggestions about my hair, comments on the new shop layout, and reasons for transferring from the Gillitts branch to the Westville one. I'll tell her about which uni I go to, what I'm studying, and why I think the Men's Health magazine is a useless buy. So, the actual cutting experience isn't a problem.

The worst bit, however, the very worst part of the hairdresser experience is walking out the shop. Any feelings of freedom are squished by the pachyderm-like realisation of what the mop on my head looks like. I hate the way my hair looks after every single cut I've ever had. It's been washed and conditioned with industrial strength shampoo and conditioner by the hair-cleaning girl, it's been fluffed around and trimmed by the hairdresser, and it dries so quickly, leaving a soft and silky, yet fluffy and dense, mass on my head. An additional spiky annoyance is the small pieces of hair which weren't caught by the brush, and sit under your collar for the entire afternoon until you get home.

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My I's and Eye

[Jan. 27th, 2006|08:31 pm]

[	Current Mood	\|	(tired, but not saying it)	]
[	Current Music	\|	K's Choice - Not an Addict	]

I'm going for an eye test on Wednesday. I might need glasses! (omg) However, worst case scenario is just reading glasses.

I get headaches and things go fuzzy if I read or look at a computer screen for too long. Perhaps it's just simple eye strain, but I might as well just get them tested. It's free on the medical aid in any case.

If I do need glasses, I think they might have to be some of those cool retro black rimmed ones.

(And yes, that title was blatantly stolen, spraypanted and relicenced from

fizzypurple's ear post.)

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Pretoriaaaa

[Jan. 23rd, 2006|03:37 pm]

[	Current Mood	\|	tired	]
[	Current Music	\|	music depleates laptop battery!	]

I'm posting this using the wirless network in the hotel... it's a little pernickity in my room, but it seems to work fine in my parents'.

Today was the Welcome Day at the University of Pretoria, so my sister had to run around campus, sorting things out. We listened to the very boring welcome speech, and even had a small sampling of student protest!!!! (We're too lazy to protest at Rhodes) We were sitting in the gallery of the ampitheatre, and during the VC's speech, two guys sitting at the bottom near the stage unfolded a banner, and showed it to the crowd (not the VC) and it said: 'Rektor, jy het ons geld, waar is ons Afrikaans?' It means: 'Vice Chancellor, you have our money, where is our Afrikaans?' It was in protest to the varsity changing the language of some lectures from Afrikaans to English. Honestly though, they can't expect to have a whole University to them in one language. They should go to the University of Stellenbosch for that!

So, I don't envy Bianca being among all the Afrikaans. The campus is nice, but not as nice as Rhodes, and it's really huge. The first year group (7000 students) outnumbers the entire student body of Rhodes (6000 students). One thing that I do envy is the fresh start she's getting...

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Court Classique

[Jan. 21st, 2006|11:28 am]

[	Current Mood	\|	tired	]
[	Current Music	\|	Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication	]

I took my sister to Burn last night, along with a friend of mine and two friends of hers. It was fun, I think she enjoyed herself. If not, it was certainly at least an education. And she behaved herself. Except when she started dancing to Green Day and I had to pretend I didn't know her.

Tomorrow I leave for the capital. My sister is going to start her first year of study at the Uni of Pretoria, so we're going up to get her settled into her room. I wasn't going to go with, but well, we're staying in a really fancy boutique hotel...

Phlypzyde!

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If I was a rich man (8)	[Jan. 20th, 2006\|02:59 pm]
If I were to ever get a personalized numberplate, I'd have it say: '2emo4u'.
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Hoorah	[Jan. 17th, 2006\|12:48 pm]
I'm now the proud owner of an iTrip Mini.
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I'm still waiting to hear from the iPod people.

[Jan. 13th, 2006|12:59 pm]

[	Current Mood	\|	tired	]
[	Current Music	\|	no music at work :(	]

And, I ordered an iTrip which will, hopefully, arrive today. Imagine my iPod request doesn't go through, and I have an iTrip with no iPod!

I went to the doctor yesterday. Fatigue is really getting me down. He took some blood and sent it in for testing. He asked a lot of questions about my psychological health, most of which I couldn't answer with 100% certainty or honesty. Funny thing that I can't open up to my own doctor. If I'd linked him to my blog, he'd have known more about me!

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It's rainy and good

[Jan. 9th, 2006|02:53 pm]

[	Current Mood	\|	tired	]
[	Current Music	\|	Radiohead - Worrywart	]

I took my car down into Durban to get the door fixed, and to get my number plates stuck on. Oh, how I despise driving in the city! Once I got off the highway, I was on Commercial Road - a four lane, one-way road which goes straight down towards the beaches. There is a robot at every block and so I was constantly stopping and starting. Taxis and trucks just stop on either the rightmost or leftmost lane, wherever it suits them, to offload people and goods. So if you try to get into the leftmost lane to turn into another road, you have to first dodge all the different vehicles parked in that lane.

So, I got the things done at the VW dealership, and then had to head further down the road, turn into Brickhill road and then right onto Pine Street (another four lane, one way road) and face the same obstacles as Commercial Road, until I found my way back onto the N3.

Then I had to get off the N3 at the Berea, and find the office of Durban's Apple agents. Driving on the Berea is much more like driving in the suburbs, except for the San Fransiscoesque hills which I have to navigate. Anyway, I spoke to the dude at the Apple store, and since my iPod is still under warranty (until Sunday! I bought it when we were in Dubai in January of last year), the dude is going to replace the entire iPod for me for free! So I'll have a brand new one, no scratches, no chips, and no one-hour battery life!

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Blog Slut

[Jan. 6th, 2006|09:20 pm]

[	Current Mood	\|	hot	]
[	Current Music	\|	Modest Mouse - The Stars are Projectors	]

My car goes very nicely! However, for some reason the front passenger door doesn't open from the inside. What a weird and annoying quirk. I'll have to get it sorted out when I go in to get my number plates next week.

Thanks for the NZ post card, Adma!

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Woot!

[Jan. 3rd, 2006|04:51 pm]

[	Current Mood	\|	ecstatic	]
[	Current Music	\|	Block Party - Plans	]

Bright was the day when my dad showed up at the house at about a quarter to two, and we drove down into Durban, to McCarthy Volkswagen Durban.

And there stood my very own motor vehicle! I got asked which keyring I preferred, and shocked my dad when I didn't choose the one with the bottle opener on it. 'I have so many!' Said I.

Then the nice woman showed me around the car, explaining, as they do, as if I had never seen a magical forward-moving machine before. 'This is the handbrake, here is the radio, oh, and both the driver and passenger have coverable cosmetic mirrors!!!'

Then I drove home. I hate driving through town when it's so busy! I got hooted at, and we had to change course once because of some Grand Prix thing that's causing them to block off all the roads. I have to go back on Thursday to fetch my number plates.

I'd take a photo of my car with me hugging it, wearing an insanely large grin upon my face, but my sister and her camera are cavorting around Europe, so it'll have to wait. Here it is, the wrong way round, of course. It's a German one with left-hand drive, mine is right-hand drive:

And now my dad wants to know if the excitement had worn off. Honestly, one would think a parent would know their child. Said I: 'When have you ever known me to jump around screaming when I'm excited? I am excited! I just don't show it readily.'

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Car Guards

[Dec. 29th, 2005|02:19 pm]

[	Current Mood	\|	blah	]
[	Current Music	\|	The Perishers - Sway	]

I'm not sure of the state of car guards in other countries, but in SA we have them everywhere. Mostly they're people who can't get jobs doing anything else, and they just stand in the sun all day, holding a baton and hoping to hell that they don't have to stop someone stealing a car. I don't know what some of them would do in that situation.

Anyway, yesterday I went to the Pavilion to watch a movie, and the place was extremely busy, so I drove around for a while before I found a parking. I found one which required quite a hectic turn to get in. Once I was just about turned in, I figured I wasn't going to get into the parking without hitting the next car, so I put the car into reverse and was about to go backwards a little bit when the car guard came up and started giving me directions, as they often do.

'Come, come!' He said. I was skeptical, but shifted back into first and crept forward. I sighed when I felt my car clip the other car. The moron! He was clearly indicating I move forward, that I would make it, and then I manage to hit another car. Luckily, neither car was damaged. Still, what a moron!

Anyway, like I said, no damage was done. The door of the other car was ajar (people were waiting in the car), and that was what I clipped. Luckily I was going very slowly.

So, I watched Narnia, which was a very good movie. Then I went down to Burn with David, and they played quite a lot of Indie music, and some emo too, which was cool.

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