And then...

I moved out. Left the rare form of tourettes disguised as singing behind. I have silence now. Blissful silence. One lazy saturday afternoon I was lying in bed reading, soaking the sun through the double glazed windows and the realisation that the deprivation of silence was over engulfed me, a wave of euphoria if you will. Bliss that space and boundary had returned with ownership rights, bliss that the intrusion that I hadn't called invasion yet was, was now over.

Then I bought a car.

Now I want to travel.

Flatmates

Ouch, only 9 blog posts last year. I guess this will be infrequent then...

Today I need to vent to the empty universe about flatmates. More specifically one of mine (I have two). I remember reading a few years back about a famous blog where the blogger basically kept an online diary about the antics of her flatmate. I thought what tosh at the time, but now it seems genius. Because, sure one can let rip at their flatmate every twenty minutes they do something annoying, but unfortunately you can't escape them until the end of the lease.

I'm not a neat-freak by any measure, but certain things I find gross:

• Who washes their plates before scraping the food off...
• and then lets said food clog the kitchen sink
• and does nothing about it?
• Who eats half a meal and puts it back in the fridge...
• on a plate...
• without plastic wrapping or in a Tupperware container...
• when such plates contain any smelly canned food ranging from baked beans to tinned corn - do u have any idea how bad that crap smells in such a short period?

Then lets talk about all the stuff he breaks because of lack of attention - cupboard doors, glasses etc. Ok lets not :p Or the time he left the stove on and almost burnt the flat down...
Or the time he left the back door ajar and went out...

I am going crazy here. He is a nice guy overall, but I want to punch his face in. Oh well, this blog will suffice...

Have PC, no job, will blog

I guess I haven't been blogging because i spend one and a half hours commuting everyday. Until tomorrow yay, when its my last day on the job thank goodness. I have visa issues and will need to change visa classes in the new year in SA and then return and join the job chase in a battered British economy - fun times await indeed. But for now, I'm looking forward to the break.

What have I done/learnt over the last year:

• Read loads of books commuting to work until September when I switched to sudoku (I was using all my brain power before I got to work);
• My boss is spiteful, lacking in humanity and slightly xenophobic - I will miss her, not;
• I went to Scotland where the people in the cities are friendly and the people in the countryside aren't;
• Met people from all over the world, some of who are firm friends now;
• Discovered my thyroid is fine, but my testosterone levels tend to low;
• Learnt who my real friends left in SA are;
• Learnt my parents actually miss me;
• Became really good friends with my sister;
• Learnt to cook (like a bachelor on the run...);
• Wished I had picked a career where I could use my hands rather than chasing intangibles that live inside a PC;
• Fell in love with London, although I still hardly know her;
• Packed on the weight;
• Had random bump-into's with people I haven't seen since school or before that making me very nostalgic;
• Didn't do any travelling which miffed me;
• Discovered parsnips and sweet potatoes (never ate these in SA);
• Considering vegetarianism very seriously now (I'll keep fish and eggs although);
• Started to grow up, at last.

I know nobody reads this anymore, but I forgot (again) just how good it feels to put it out in the universe. Besides, if I said this to anyone I know IRL, I'd get 'sentimental sap' slapped across my face.

Trivial Platitude #604

The best way to overcome a destructive habit that one enjoys, is to learn to hate it. And replace it with a healthier more constructive one.

(Obvious to everyone except me... until now... hopefully).

On Charm & Charisma

Yeah I have none, I can deal. But occasionally I meet someone that pulls me into their orbit really strongly (I'm talking in a non-sexual way btw) invariably because of their charm, aura, whatever. Generally these people are way cooler than me, more careless with their treatment of people (because they can? can they?) They indulge me for a while before growing bored and moving on. I see the trend, and sometimes I can avoid being sucked in by that gravitational pull. But when I cant back away in time, my misguided belief that people are essentially decent ebbs slightly lower yet again.

Stupid EMO thoughts

A lot of people use the cliche that they feel like they are driving down a one way road the wrong way. I'm slightly different I guess - I'm driving in the right direction, only my car is the wrong way round. I can't see where I am headed - instead all I have is nostalgia, the past and all it entails disappearing over the horizon and me lamenting this. It is seriously fucking time to get my act together. I have so many new opportunities to turn this car around so to speak and I am squandering them on thoughts of things that have been or never will be. At least I'm painfully conscious of it, but trying to look to the future and live in the now is a harder habit to develop than I would of staked. So its the grind against the natural course of entropy of new self-commitment yet once again. Do I have the stamina to push it my way for once? Betting men disagree, but its not like I really have a choice...

Have PC, will blog

1. London is way to hectic for someone just coming out of a sleepy sabbatical of sorts. The job is going well. I have a good boss, which makes a difference, but getting life done after work is taking its toll on me. At least things stay open until 8/9pm generally here for all the time-deprived people like me to get things done.

2. I miss talking arb shit to people. Actually there are 6 people in the world I can do this with. 4 of them live in SA, 1 in London, 1 in LA. I thought there was a 7th, but he is bored of my weirdness lol. I miss those 4 in SA dearly - thank goodness for that one in London, my pocket lesbian - she lives the other side of town from me, but we work 2 kilometres away.

3. My roommates and I are hosting a dinner party tomorrow evening - due to my limited cooking skills, I get tasked with making salad, lol. I can deal hehe. But I've never really hosted dinner parties or any shit like that in SA - I used to treat friends by eating out. More new things to experience :P

4. More SA/UK double standards from ugly ex-Saffas:
Him: More power cuts in SA I hear. That country is useless
Me: I can't believe that fuckup at Terminal 5 at Heathrow.

I find the most effective way of dealing with anti-SA sentiment is to shove some UK disaster in their face - and there is plenty to go around...

5. I miss my car and driving and will need to buy one here I think. VW have a Polo here that is more green than a Toyota Prius - The Polo blue-motion. That appeals.

6. Sleep. Now.

I'm not dead, just floating...

1. Actually I'm not floating either as that would that would be too time consuming as well. It just happens that that Pink song was on my ipod earlier and is stuck in my head. Things here are hectic and a lack of a PC has made regular posting kinda difficult. But my new home PC arrives 3 April and regular transmission will recommence then :P

2. I am back from Scotland now and whacked week one of my job and finally moved in my flat and am starting to get to know my roommates - one dutchman, an irishman and me (a south african) - sounds like a start to a joke - walk into bar etc. So far so good...

3. Its cold, but I discovered I can do cold thanks to my KWAY longjohns, lol. I will need to buy more methinks...

4. When I left SA, I decided I was going to be a good ambassador for this country. Its hard work, especially when the biggest detractors I am defending SA to are generally South African. The ugly ex-South African is even uglier outside SA, I'm afraid to report. They see everything SA-related through negative-tinted glasses - When Northern Rock went bust (and the bank of england nationalised it to save it - a major botch up of note), they seem non-plussed - but these are the same people that cried out SA was in a financial meltdown a few years ago when Saambou went into curatorship (which the SA Reserve bank handled much better). The double standard in response is sickening to say the least. Rant over...

5. I always was one who remembered people's faces and names. I have met so many people over these last few weeks that I am embarrassed to say I have forgotten a lot of names, faces and introductory backstories that accompany them. Its either the volume or my age that has made me shoddy - either way, I dont like it - I always prided myself on remembering everything people tell me no matter how irrelevant to my life they are.

6. I think I will go to Portugal next! and come April 3rd I will be all over your blogs :P

London II

1. Got a job, yay. My agent was going through the benefits and I blurted out "I accept" when she mentioned the 28 days leave plus public holidays (bank holidays in UK-speak). Company is French, so I might wanna learn to say more than "parlez vous anglais?"

2. I wanted to start on Monday but they told me 17th March, so now I can go travelling. I wanted to go to Italy but I think I should leave it for warmer times, (even though London is blue skies, global warming doesn't gaurantee anything anywhere anymore) so its off to Scotland for me!

3. I was almost mugged on Friday night. 2 dudes in balaklavas started following me on my walk home (it was about 1am), so I crossed the road only to be followed. So I crossed back where they tried to corner me. I took a chance and made a run for it, and as they hadn't made any ground on me by the time I reached the main road, they gave up the chase. I think it was funny to be able to get away so easy but the truth is I would never pull a stunt like that in SA - I guess thats the difference between guns & knifes.

3. Otherwise I have been shopping a lot as I consistently feel underdressed to those financial type folks in the city, looking for a place to live, reading lots, visiting friends and meeting so many new people. And of course sitting in parks, trying to deal with a lots of thoughts I should just consign to past worlds and move on - if only it were that simple. Any tips on how to sever unwanted baggage?

A Sunday in Hampstead

Pointing out the buildings of who stays/stayed where (Boy George here, Keats there, Elizabeth Taylor behind that, 2 of the evil spice girls on top of that...), the tour guide illuminated hidden cobbled back alleys on this (expensive) village within a city on a hill with a massive heath running through it. We were bounced about between modern, Victorian and Georgian London, harshly reminding the naive and niggling the realistic of their visions of London-living, that is in fact possible, but out of reach to the lower and middle classes. For the attainable reality, we merely had to look at each other - Samuel from Holland, Justin from Cape Town, Michel from France etc. as we scoffed down gourmet crepes from a stand on the main road after the tour ended, as a reminder of why this place, not home (not yet at least) has sucked us in from all over the globe.