Stop fighting or I'll TURN this AROUND!

I'm typing this with a bird on each shoulder. Occasionally one of them walks around to the shoulder that is occupied by the other bird and they start squawking and pecking. So I pick up the one that was originally there and move it to the other shoulder. Ah, the stress of life in general.

Today was odd. My Dad is stiff off from work and managed to get a particularly nasty dose of flu that has him wlaking around like a zombie, sneezing and sniffling and being hugely productive and rather sensitive about things. My mom and I went off to breakfast and he got highly offended that we hadn't invited him on account of his being in bed with a thermometer sticking out of his mouth. By the time we got back he'd done two loads of laundry and a gigantic pile of ironing. He just doesn't know how to relax!

Anyway breakfast with my mom was marginally less awkward than usual. I'm not sure why but we're actually getting along relatively well lately. After that we split up and went shopping and I ended up buying clothes (as if I didn't have enough) which are very different to what I usually wear. I like them though. I had to rush off to work to get approval for them right away, so I went and had lunch with Jo and Lara. They had Steers, I had celery and mango. for some reason I've been craving celery and mango so much that I haven't eaten very much else for 2 days so now I feel a bit sick. But mango is amazing! I love mango.

We were also talking abut a leaflet I picked up while I was shopping. it's for a part-time course in being a field guide and covers stuff like:

• Taxonomy,


• Grasses


• Trees


• Earth studies


• weather and climate


• astronomy


• Ecology (savannas)


• Geology and geomorphology


• animal studies


• mammals (biology,taxonomy and behaviour)


• amphibians


• reptiles


• arthropods (focussing on insects and arachnids)


• birds(biology and identification)


• fish


• guiding


• signs of the veld


• bush navigation


• plaeoanthropology


• and ecotourism

From what I understand it's a one-year course with a weekly lecture in sunninghill (which is close to where I work) and it has weekend field-trips for practicals. And it looks like they may go to the REAL desert. I was talking to Jo and she was saying that if I do it she'll do it with me, which would be so much fun! I'm very tempted to go for it, so I'm waiting for them to send me the information pack thingie. The frustrating thing is that you can go all over the website (www.africanaturetraining.co.za) and there is nothing about the price. It's so so annoying!

anyway I came home and caught up on a few hours of sleep and now I'm probably going to work on my CV for the Edinburgh application. Or maybe I'll just have some more mango (MANGO!!!) and go to bed.

Oh yes, and I'm happy to say that all of the people I know in matric (except for Sarah whose surname I kind of forgot) has passed and done really well. YAY! And my mom came rushing in this moring to throw the newspaper at me and show me that my friend Lynne got 6 A's and that there was a whole long article on Luke's sisters (which mixed them up a bit too. I guess that's an occupational hazard of being a twin). She also told me that I would be in all kinds of trouble if I didn't phone and congratulate them RIGHT AWAY. It was a pretty awkward phonecall... but quite amusing at the same time!

Here's a picture of some books. It was in this old rickety shed that we used to store our animals in Darling (there was a lot of cool stuff, like huge saws and bear-traps and a baby bird that liked to fly into your feet whenever you were feeling mildly unsettled) there was a pile of dusty books. Eventually curiosity got the better of me and I looked inside them. It's basically an acocunt of every day on the farm for over a century. The netry would say something like:

16 January

Killed 1 goat

Took Martha to Worcester

and so on. the writing was illegible most of the time, some of the older entries had been done with a quill pen! I intended to take a picture of a page but I forgot. I'll have to go back there someday and get one.

Educational...

Today has been one of the most educational days ever. I started off sleeping in (I've been having trouble sleeping, so is it up until 1 or 2am and then sleep late from exhaustion) and then at around 10:15 my mother and I decided to go for breakfast. As I started getting dressed and so on I got an sms from Jo asking why on earth I wasn't at work. I had no idea... so I panicked and called her and she was really nice as usual, saying if I'd made plans it was ok I didn't have to and all that sort of reassuring boss-type nonsense. I love my boss! It's really really unlike me to miss a shift, I've been working since I was 15 and never missed a day (except once when they were going to call me in case of emergency and there was an emergency but I had food poisoning and told them to sort it out themselves).

So I got dressed and drove like a maniac, only 45 minutes late for work after all. I had also planned on going in to wits to give the iguana some mango for Christmas and say Hi to Oliver, but then I had to sms him and cancel and I felt really bad in case he'd taken a day off because I was feeding her today. It turned out he'd left his phone at home after all so it was ok because he was entirely unaware of my coming through.

We also caught up on the gossip. It turns out that two of our customers (both married) are having an affair with each other. It's really sad because we know both families and they're all extremely nice people. It's also ridiculous that they've decided to spend their 'quality time' together in our store considering they're regular customers and they know that we know them. It's so obvious that even Chris noticed it independently.

I was working with Jo and the new girl, who was a lot nicer today. She'd not the fastest learner but it turns out that she battles with dyslexia. I have a lot of respect for her attitude towards it. Lara also came in and bitched about her second job (assistant in Drew's law firm). She's planning on quitting it soon.

After work I went home and started watching Final Cut. It's a movie where people have chips implanted in their brains beofre birth that record everything as it happens through their eyes. After they die it's edited and made into a movie and friends and family go and watch it. the story is about a guy (played by Robin Williams) whose job is to edit all the hours and hours of footage. It threw open a lot of ethical considerations (how do you choose what to leave out? and is it right to portray a really nasty person as a good person through their own memories?) For instance one guy who was really nasty and molested his own daughter. It started off with him going into his little girl's room and saying he loved her and her answering that she loved him too. After that it gpt unpleasant. So he edited out all the nasty stuff and just had them saying they loved each other. It was so wrong! Also, if you think about certain events a lot do they show up more often in your memories?

Unfortunately after 45 minutes the DVD started sticking and jumping and I stopped watching. There's been a problem with that movie a million times before. I know it's been sent in for repairs about 10 times. All 4 copies of it. I was a bit relieved, it was upsetting me slightly.

Anyway I stopped watching and decided to rejoin the world of the living for a bit and took my dog for a nice long walk and then took the other dog swimming. If anyone has access to my memories someday I hope they pick those ones.

OD on movies and sugar!!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! Sorry I haven't updated, the problem with coming home a week beofre Christmas is that everything becomes an insane rush to get all the shopping done and the cards written and so on in time for the Big Day.

This year was the first Christmas I remember that I wasn't roped into reading in church or playing endless carols oor anything. I also went to midnight mass, so I didn't go to any of the morning services. We also had the big dinner at my grandparents house so there was no rushing around trying to finish all the preparations and stuff. Which makes this the easiest Christmas I have ever had. Seriously, I slept late on Christmas day!

The day itself was the usual blend of family togetherness and family dysfunction that I associate with any of the big holidays. I got a lot of soap and a few books. One is a really awesome one on wildlife photography that tells you all about the technical aspects of the photographs as well as the 'inspiration' and all that. I wish I'd had it before the trip! I also met an old friend of my grandparents who they met on a bus tour through Namibia before I was born. He's German but has lived in America for a really long time (the accent is unbelievable!) and has amazing pictures of hummingbirds that he showed me. He's travelled all over the world and he mapped out the perfect 3 week tour around the western part of America and now I'm dying to go!

Other than Christmas I've been spending a lot of time alone, just thinking and arbing. I watched a lot of TV for a bit but that got boring so now I'm spending a large part of my days just driving around. thinking is getting unpleasant, I've got too many unsolved problems, like the very minor 'what do I do with my life?' thing. I've been ok with just carrying on as long as I'm having fun, but I'm scared to go back to wits. I remember what honours did to me and I never want that again. It also hit me the other day that I have a lot of fun, but is that really enough to build a career and someday support myself? Scary stuff!

I've also been trying to spend time with all the friends I've been neglecting all year because of work and Wits and so on. It's harder than I thought: they're either away or working most of the time and when I do spend time with them it's really awkwad like we haven't got anything to tlak about anymore. It's getting a lot better though. Tonight about 8 of us went to movies (we saw 'Flushed Away' it's SO funny!) and had a great time, and now I ahve a lot of plans with them which is really nice. I've also been doing a lot of housework. My family has gone into a 'Clean the House!' frenzy and my brother got a lot of gardening tools for Christmas so I get roped into helping him rake leaves and sweep and stuff a lot. If I object I get the 'This time next year you won't have a brother anymore!' speech. And there I was thinking I was getting a sister. Oh well.

I worked at the Sunninghill branch this afternoon, that was a lot of fun too. It's in a tiny little centre that's mostly closed off for renovations and I had a lot of memories of working at the old petshop in Illovo before I was moved to Paulshof - almost no customers. It was nice, I wouldn't mind working there more often, partly because it's next door to a Spar and I got Mango juice which is incredible! I also managed to watch two whole movies during my shift - 'Lady in the Water' which was awesome. Not quite up to the standard of M. Night Shymalan's other movies but I did enjoy it. I think what threw me was the way that the director had a biggish role. The thing is, in all his movies he has a cameo role, and it's always fun to watch out for him, so I was all like 'Yay! Cameo!' and then he kept reappearing. It was very beautifully made though and quite thought-provoking. After that I watched 'Memoirs of a Geisha' which was beautiful and disquieting at the same time. I felt so sorry for her!

I figured that with the title of my blog I'd better add in some reptile photos. This is a lizard we saw in Namaqualand a lot. They're quite small and run really fast. I managed to get pictures of this guy by getting the focus ready and then chasing him from under his bush. Not very nice for him, but it worked!

And here's a picture of me that Luke took one evening in Darling. It's not the most brilliant photo, but I love it!

ho-f***ing-ho

My burgeoning Christmas spirit died during the afternoon shift at work.

It started off ok, I slept in, wrapped all of one present, played with the dogs (I had to pretty much cut all the fur off Jesse's back legs and her stomach yesterday because it was so matted so I was spending some quality time with her). After lunch I helped my brother put up the tree. It was a little bit under duress, I'm not a big fan of pulling out all the decorations when nobody will be here on Christmas day, but it was quite fun. We also ended up chatting for quite a long time about photography ("Mr SLR" doesn't know the difference between aperture and shutter-speed) and honeymoon plans and stuff.

Work started off in a pretty hilarious mood. Someone returned the box for their Playstation game but instead of the "Brothers in arms" game it was a movie inside. Called (and I'm being serious) "Wet Cotton Panties" with an option to skip straight to whichever sex-scene you want. Joey had to call them and ask them for the game. Even the big tough-guys I work with were blushing!

After about an hour we had a big storm. And the power went out. We surived for about an hour writing everything down and doing the manual swipey-thing with credit cards and so on and then the power came on. So we rather stupidly put all 4 candles away (we should really be a bit better prepared!) and after ten minutes the lights went out again. it took about 45 minutes (the flashing Chritmas hat was rather useful in avoiding collisions with customers) before the power cae on again. Byt then I was really annoyed and frantically trying to enter all the transactions into the computer system when Luke and Dave came to drop off photos from the trip. I was not in the best mood, but it did make me feel a bit better to see some friendly (albeit giggly) faces rather than all the frustrated customers!

It was a long shift. Eventually when the power decided to stay on (we didn't blow out the candles and I think that ensured a bit of luck - I'm not superstitious at all!) we watched Hoodwinked - mainly for the crowd of about 10 kids who came and sat on the carpet in front of the TV and demanded a movie - and had chips with sweet-chilli dip. By the end of the shift the Christmas hats were in a pile under the counter and the Chritmas CDs were hidden behind the non-playstation game and we went for drinks.

The owner of the Thai restaurant got all Christmas spiritish (her staff all have Christmas hats with flashing green trees) and gave us free drinks. It turns out my friend Lara's got a lot of stuff going on so we sat there for a long time before we both claimed exhaustion and went home. My mom and I had a very long conversation about tomorrow NOT being Christmas (it's just Sunday) and I went and wrapped the rest of my presents.

It's not that I don't like Christmas, I just hate the fact that a time that we're supposed to be celebrating something amazing is turned into such a stressful occasion where we have to spend huge amounts of money and rush around like maniacs. And christmas carols...

And Blogger has decided to lift my spirits by not letting me post pictures! so I decided to upgrade to the new BLogger and it seems to like me more. Here you go, a pretty 'desert' sunset!

The Christmas spirit

My boss has turned into a monster. She's forcing us to wear Christmas hats while working (if we're caught without them we'll be fired on the spot) as well as playing Christmas music over the sound system. We only had two CDs - one orchestral and the other instrumental with pan-pipes and things... but now we have about 5 including the 'Beatmas' CD which is performed by 5 guys dressed in Santa suits and sunglasses.

The hats are all pretty disgusting. They're usually only worn on Christmas eve and Christmas day, but we have 9 staff members and I don't think the hats have ever been washed before. I flat out refused to wear one so Jo made me wear hers. It's clean but it's also covered in flashing stars. The customers find it very amusing and all think that they're unique in their comments (I mean 'Nice hat!' is so original of course). The best was one customer who said "you're being forced into the Christmas spirit? Ho-f*cking-ho!" I liked him!

It was weird though. Between our playing baseball with a plastic bat (courtesy of the kiddies meals from Nando's) and various Christmas ornaments and messing around with the left-over 'magic candles' from Springbok we started to get into the whole Christmas thing. we'd have taken the hats off in a heartbeat if we dared, but Matt1 and I started singing along and dancing around to the songs and stuff and it wasn't entirely bad. It was really strange!

Here's a picture of the road to the study site in the Kalahari. There can't be many people whose route to work looks like this!

insights into life from staring at the TV all day

1. I can procrastinate even if I'm not pressed for time at all.
2. Woody Allen makes movies that make me feel uncomfortable about being human.
3. Does TV desensitise us or are we all actually predisposed towards violence already?
4. It should be illegal to end a series with more than one cliffhanger ('Prison Break' being a prime example. What if the show was cancelled? What would we do then? Send them an email saying 'Just so I know, what happened to Jo Smith after his head nearly fell off in the finale? Did they manage to reattach it or did they just transplant his brain?') Excuse my example. I tried to invent something plausible but decided against it.
5. People in movies hardly ever have boring everyday names. How many ties do you see the characters running into people with the same name as them? And why are so many names symbolic of the year of their life that's portrayed? Was their mother supposedly psychic? Maybe this is why Hollywood people can't give their children real names.

I finished the first season of 'Prison Break' last night. It was so frustrating! I've also been having trouble sleeping and I think I got too involved in it and I ended up reading Steven King (who wrote some passable stuff apparently. Maybe the books I tried before were just the bad ones. Or maybe I was just lucky to get the good one this time) until early this morning when I passed out over 'Hearts in Atlantis.'

I went through to work to drop off the DVDs to fins that Laurin the One Who Talks was there. she's unbelievable. Quite often I just walk away while she's talking. It doesn't seem to affect her and I get to avoid whatever health problem she wants to go on about this time. she did have one entertaining story of when she worked at hotel school they locked her in a fridge for over 2 hours. Jo was almost twitching by the time I got there so we ended up joining Drew and Lara for lunch next door. It was fun, I haven't seen Drew in months and he's always entertaining. He told me that all I need to shut Laurin up is 'a small case of death' and it'll be just fine. Maybe his idea of his ability as a lawyer is slightly inflated?

After work I waited for Carla to call to tell me to come through for her mom to take measurements for my dress. Weirdly enough she never called so I ended up at home watching 'Match Point' - don't be fooled by the presence of Scarlett Johansson - it's an interesting movie albeit slightly depressing. The style of filming was very aggressive (at ome stage they filmed the main character through a mesh fence) and very clever at the same time. Lots of symbolism but it is very obvious and quite harsh sometimes. I enjoyed it, but I had to admit that the main character's 'downfall' didn't really seem too bad to me. Which is really scary because he did some terrible stuff, but I found myself surprised at how bad he felt about it all. Which is why I think TV has desensitised us all. Maybe after 'Prison Break' where someone dies almost every episode, or 'Lost' where according to the cast 'as soon as your issues are resolved you're going to die' the whole concept of murder is somewhat skewed. Maybe if I'd watched it six months ago it would have shocked me more. It was a good movie though and very cleverly acted.

Here's a quote "The man who said "I'd rather be lucky than good" saw deeply into life. People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck. It's scary to think so much is out of one's control. There are moments in a match when the ball hits the top of the net, and for a split second, it can either go forward or fall back. With a litte luck, it goes forward, and you win. Or maybe it doesn't, and you lose."

For all the reviews etc look at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416320/

Here's a picture of sunset on our second-last day in the Kalahari. It was really really pink!

I have more photos but they aren't uploading for some reason. So watch this space!

why is Christmas shopping so complicated?

After a steady few hours finishing up on 'Lost' season 2 this morning and then finally getting part 2 of the first season of 'Prison Break' from work (and the end of the season is shocking. How can they do that to me?) I went to do some Christmas shopping.

As per usual I ended up in the situation of not knowing what to get some people and other people being too easy to shop for. So I buy some people several gifts and others none. And then I sit down and try to redistribute all the gifts easily. The hardest is my grandmothers - I can't get one a big present and the other one a small present because my parents will get upset if their parents aren't treated the same.

Tthis year I decided to be smart and buy them matching gifts, so I was all set for some uncomplicated shopping. Very funny. so i got my soon-to-be sister-in-law some earrings and then I found a nice display photo album but it was pretty expensive so I decided to get that for her and my brother and then each of them a small present for themselves. I refuse to buy 'house stuff' for Carla because I don't think it's fair that she only gets that while my brother gets all the random stuff he wants for himself. But then I went to a jewellery store and ended up getting her a bracelet. So now I have a small present for my brother, a big present for his fiance and a gift for them to share. So I considered shifting the photo album to my brother but it's too girly. The alternative is to save it for part of their wedding present and then get my brother something else. Why can't they just be normal and ask for chocolate or something?

Otherwise it was a pretty successful day. I have gifts for my parents, my grandfather and my boss, which leaves me with an aunt, two grandmothers and the other boss. By Monday.

I also went to see Sarah at work. The bookstore is a lot smaller than I expected but I had so much fun arbing around and looking at books. I've reread my books to such an extent I had to resort to Steven King last night. I nearly bought 'Brother Fish' by Bryce Courtenay (he's one of my gfavourite authors and I have almost all of his books) but then I started flipping through it and realised it involved post-traumatic stress and war, just like his last 5 or so books. I'm tired of post-traumatic-stress. He writes so well but he needs some new subject matter! So I decided to leave it until next year when I have more energy.

Then I sat and watched a ridiculous amount of Prison Break. Now I think it's time for me to get started on my application forms for Scotland. To tell the truth I'm not sure I really want to apply, but that's just apathy.

I was going to add a picture but blogger won't let me :(

we're not immature...

I was at work today. It was pretty boring. We have a new trainee called Nicky (so now there is Nikki and Nicky as well as Matt and Matt...) who is pretty nice. She's a bit shy but nothing really bad. I also get the feeling that I'm really not going to get along with her in the long run. I don't know why. Lara said the same a bit later.

Anyway Jo had to go and run errands for the other branches and Nicky and I were left alone together. We watched a bit of 'Snakes on a Plane', which was ok, not as funny as I'd expected although it had its moments! I will probably finish watching it at some stage, we had to stop when it went out to a customer. I just finshed the first half of the first season of prison break but the second half is out for the rest of the week, so I'm a bit annoyed :(

Once Nicky had left Jo discovered that the second hand bookstore in the centre (at which Justin no longer works. He found a better shopping centre up the road :( and left us) is selling a bunch of cool toys. Nicky had bought some putty stuff that is supposed to change according to your mood. Pretty much none of us feel anything except varying shades of bluey-grey as the putty got dirtier and dirtier. So Jo bought some of that rubber stuff you squeeze onto a little tube and then blow really cool bubbles. we spent half an hour blowing bubbles and trying to play volleyball in spite of a large fan next to us. It was also fun watching the static charge act on them. Jo just couldn't hit them away because they kept sticking to her in all sorts of inappropriate places.

Once the afternoon staff arrived we went to the bookstore and struggled with issues like 'Will Lara really believe that the rubber stick-on cuts and grazes are real?' and 'does bouncing putty really bounce?' finally I got a tube of the bubble stuff and a balloon that was supposed to be a flying saucer and Jo got a farting putty set (it's putty in a plastic toilet and as you push it it in releases the air... sounds pretty realistic too!) and a cardboard tree that grows blossoms if you put it in water (I had one when I was small, it was so rox!). We went back to the store and experimented with our new toys. I feel really sorry for the customer in the store. It was a lady with two small kids and every time Jo pushed the putty stuff we all fell over giggling and the baby girl was fascinated. The last straw came when I blew up my 'flying saucer' and let it go. It shot around the store and as the air was released it made a loud buzzing/whining noise. Chris sat looking shocked while Jo, Matt2 and I literally rolled around laughing and then repeated the whole process. Several times.

That was pretty much my day. After work Jo and LAra and I went and had drinks and then I came home and watched random DVDs until my parents got home. Right now I'm waiting for them to leave the TV so I can finish the second season of Lost.

I also got the stitching programme on my computer to work. Here's a panoramic shot of sunset in the Kalahari. It came out really small because it's so long :( so you'll have to take my word for it. It was amazing!

Things I missed about Joburg (and didn't always realise it)

1. Driving. I love having time to myself to go wherever I want. My dad also surprised me with a 'present' of a full petrol tank when I got home, so I'm pretty happy about that.
2. Having time alone. As weird as it was to wake up the first morning back and realise there was nobody in the room, I really missed having a bit of quiet time to think to myself and just ... exist (lack of a better word).
3. Internet connection. Not that the email was really worth it. Although there was a very amusing one regarding the free food at wits. There was a graduation and afterwards there was all this food left over, so they put it in the tea room and sent an email around saying there were free leftovers if anyone wanted them. And then some guy got really annoyed and sent one back saying that it's incredibly rude to offer leftovers to someone who wasn't invited to the party. I figured that academics were pretty universal in their response to free food. Apparently not. Regarding the internet connection, there were 3 Weebls-stuff cartoons I hadn't seen yet. Score!
4. 24 hour access to 5500 (and climbing) different DVDs. We also got the newest documentary (which features my lizards). My boss called me a loser today. I wonder why. I also have a terrible headache from watching about four hours of TV this afternoon (following 2 episodes of 'Prison Break' and 'Blade' this morning. 'Blade' was actually really cool, although I'm hearing very conflicting reports on the sequels.
5. Christmas bonus! I love my boss (not the one who called me a loser. Although she is also totally rox). And it's not just a bunch of money in a bank bag (like commission), it comes inside a Christmas card! to tell the truth I was half expecting just a card woth a note saying wither "You're fired! Merry Christmas!" or something more polite like "We're not sure if you still work for us as we haven't seen you in six months. Take care!" Instead it was a very sweet message (I can't read the writing but it looked like it included 'happy' and 'family' and 'joy' and stuff) and rather a lot more money than they gave me last year.
6. running into random people. Like my friend Sarah (not the blogging one. Another one) who came to sit next to me at the carol service on sunday. She's awesome in that she's very excitable and talks faster than me, while always increasing in volume. At one stage (Joy to the World) the organist (who may have been my father but I'm not admitting to it) got a bit carried away and I got to watch her turning purple with supressed giggles. After the service we also had the worlds loudest conversation about the mertis of going to the drive-in. Which entirely depends on the quality of the movie. If you watch a good movie it's fun. But if you watch a bad movie you get to ignore it and sit on the swings for an hour and chat until you get motion sickness. The downside is that there are only two swings. But there's always the slide so we're sorted.
7. 'Prison Break'. No, it isn't 'Lost'. But I'm addicted anyway.

That's all!

I'm baaaack!

we just got home from the Kalahari. It's two days early and I must admit, I'm glad that the trip is over, as much as I'm also quite sad. It's always a bit depressing to get back to Joburg to realise that you missed everyuone like crazy, but they carried on living while you weren't there!

The trip was exhausting and hot. Pretty much every conceivable thing that could go wrong did go wrong too, which got really annoying by the time that our car just stopped AGAIN (it died 6 times if you joing breaking down and getting stuck in sand) or the cows attacked our traps AGAIN. At the same time it was really amazing. I've seen more of my country in the last 4 weeks than I saw in the 21 and a half years that I've been living here. It all makes me want to just stop what I'm doing and go exploring all the places we couldn't stop off at and all the places on the East that we never went to. I laso learned that the friendly South African is not as unusual as Joburg has led me to believe over the past few years. I got more warmth from small town people who didn't speak English than I have in ages here (Joburg is rox, I love it to bits regardless!). I also learned that the Afrikaans that I regularly hear and sometimes speak in joburg is very different to the real boere-taal, and so I had to revert back to the traditional Afrikaans I learned in high-school. It was entertaining to most people to say the least!

We also got to see some of the most bizarre town names (Putsies, Lutzputz, Kakamas and Dingleton to name a few) and some unbelievable river names (Volstruisfontein is the only one I can remember at the moment).

On top of the other stuff we had the 'honour' of being the biggest even to happen in a lot of small towns in quite a while. It's a mixed blessing, for example in Darling we had a braai/party thing thrown for us, and in Kamieskroon we were looked at strangely by everyone and a lot of people dropped what they were doing and came to beg from the strangers. Small towns also sell soft drinks at ridiculously low prices. for example you can buy a litre of Fanta Grape for R6, and if you take the bottle back they give you R2. Which is possibly causing the CO2 shortage?

I'm going to go eat some of the biltong I got from Hotazel (say it out loud. And no, I'm not kidding) and go to sleep. In my own bed! And tomorrow I get to drive My Own Car! Score!