Game of Thrones problems

OK, so I've been watching Game of thrones since the first release. I started getting into it and needed a book to read. So I started with book 1, carried on... at that time I was pre-graduated and unemployed so I read a lot. Right now I am wading my way through book 5. I say wading because the books are MASSIVE, I am too tired tor ead most of the time, and the jumping between characters, while fantastic for on-screen (and pretty much the only way to manage so many storylines) gets a bit annoying. Plus I tend to take breaks and read other stuff for months between big books.

My problem is that nobody else seems to read them. P1 started at last, but that is book 1. I know someone who I think should be up to book 3 by now, but he has little kids, so reading time is limited. Do you know how frustrating it is when everyone in the world is watching it and they discuss it and then they ask questions and then tell me not to answer and then tell me to answer and then not to answer.

Plus even in book 5 there are twists and new characters and thing that need discussing.

I need more friends who read.

Crayon-talk

Life would be easier if was only sarcasm that needed explaining.

Things I've learned - moving out edition

1. You need very little furniture.  Camping stuff is awesome: have guest over then camping mattress on carpet is fine.

2. Groceries stop magically appearing in the cupboard.  Shopping stops being fun.  Weird things like herbs and flour and toilet paper and teabags end up being very frustrating as they either get forgotten or you don't realise you need them until you need them (not toilet paper, I knew about that one).

3. it takes very little to make a place dirty and while I'm fortunate in that it's small enough to clean quickly, the motivation to pull out the vacuum cleaner can be difficult to find. I blame our country's pervasive maid-culture for my horror at how quickly shelves get dusty.

4. Having a laundry service is fantastic.  Diminishing return of underwear not so much.

5. staying somewhere else for a few days makes me cranky.  Furniture or no furniture I loved being in my sanctuary.

6. People coming to visit when I haven't cleaned first really upsets me.  For the people who do visit: I clean on Mondays so please don't visit on or after Thursday without giving me a day or so warning.

7. Things are expensive.  I had lots of create furnishing and decorating ideas - almost all of which are on hold pending budget allocations.

8. On that note I love stripes.

9. Christmas lights are impossible to find in March, April or May,  here's hoping June will be better.

10. It is possible to get ridiculously excited about an ice tray, dustbins (I don't have any yet) and similar random home stuff that I always took for granted before I had to get them.

P.S. tupperware too

Aaaargh

My phone number has been locked as a random service provider couldn't listen to instructions. 

I am becoming one of those old folks that complain all the time.

Yay for mobile posting :)

Testing testing 123...

Hehe awesome!

fallen by the wayside

I was thinking about pictures. I take a lot of them, most of them never get further than my harddrive. I have a collection of photoframes with no pictures in them (soon to be corrected, I keep promising). I am a champion of backing up when it comes to work, but pictures are big, and it's difficult, and and and...

I have dropbox now and I put a lot of pictures in there, I do facebook a few, but never all. My laptop doesn't turn on anymore, I got it at the end of my honours year, and I managed to get it to the end of my PhD - it became a very important issue to make sure I started and finished on it, even thought I had dragged it all over the country, worked on it halfway up cliffs and basically wore it out completely. My netbook died an ugly death - I sopped it down a flight of stairs and it survived, then I stood on it.

And I realised now that there are pictures on them. The netbook I think can have the harddrive pulled out and reused, I hope my laptop can be connected, it is old now. I have ancient photos from my film-camera  childhood, and I love stumbling across them, going through the old envelopes and remembering things. My trip to Namibia, hanging out in Jersey with my Dad, traveling around South Africa with Luke - all of those memories are in there. I just have to stop being lazy about making sure I can hold onto them.

It just makes me feel old that finding the old photo-sleeve in the back of the cupboard won't be happening anymore. Saving the good photos doesn't seem as important as the surprise-photos that use to come out of the developers lab.

a new era?

Last week after many many fights, tears, pleading phone calls etc etc I got handed my shiny new phone. I'm not sure why I found the whole situation so distressing, I think it was general stress, bad customer service and... good marketing sucking me in? Again?

Anyway I have now downloaded the blogger app, and I am hoping I will be able to update a little more regularly.

As irony would have it (not really, coincidence but whatever) P1 had his phone stolen, the day I got my new one. Here's hoping he can get a shiny new job soon so he can get a shiny new phone and not have to use my elderly blackberry for too long. I also nearly had two punch-ups at Bon Jovi on Saturday. It was a stadium filled with 60 000 hostile females (I made the mistake of walking past someone, who grabbed me by the collar and dragged me across to her so that she could scream at me for invading her personal space). Crazy stuff. The second one was just a nasty person who thought that going to a concert requires single-file walking, and standing completely still while listening to music.

Still a good concert though!

Once again this post makes no sense.

Attracting strange people

It seems that wherever I go I end up with a strange contingent* (is that the right word?) of hangers on. It is even worse when La is with me, I think we feed off each other's energy and create some kind of crazy-person whirlpool. We had the managers, the green-haired guy, the person in a position of power who may not be named, the strange girls in the bathroom, the very honest gentlemen, the very rude people...

So I generally figure if I go out with her, weird things happen, if I don't then it's usually a quiet evening. Anyway I forgot to defrost anything yesterday, so after a rather frustrating day, and a tough gym session, P1 and I decided to go and get some dinner. Where we were asked to baby-sit a girl by her ex-boyfriend (10 minutes after he dumped her, but then wouldn't leave her. Communication man... communication is key... and it's the girl's job!), and the old guy with a bowtie who asked us if he could join us for a 3-some.

*It isn't always a bad thing. Some of my favourite people in the world are randoms I have collected on evenings out. Heck I picked up P1 in a dodgy pool-bar, so I guess it's a case of taking the good with the... interesting?

In other news I feel like I have shoulder-spasm, tension style. Apparently it is normal and just a result of torturing my shoulders with heavy weights.

I am also leaving my Blackberry and going Android.  It makes me sad because I have been very happy with my Blackberry, but it's a good deal, i'm due for an upgrade and its shiiiineeeeeee.

And this post makes no sense so here is a random picture:

what I wish a few people in my life would understand

complaints and complaining

My brother works in marketing, and always says that the people who call customer-complaint numbers are generally pensioner-age. Which is why I;m a bit alarmed to see the speed of my complaining response. In the last few weeks I have been furious with: the petrol station for false advertising (they have huge flags outside saying credit and debit cards accepted!, and after half an hour of queueing told me the card machine wasn't working), the book shop for... lets not go there, my cellphone service provider (once again don't go there), and my gym (only one branch, where there are fleas).

The thing is, complaining gets stuff done. Ok, I know I'm not the one to thank for the gym upgrade, that was happening already. But I got the items I wanted, with gift vouchers, apologies and prompt service. I knew my phone service provider was going to be a nightmare, there was never any question about it. So I calmly called them up, had a screaming match, complained bitterly on hellopeter for 5 minutes and waited for my problems to be resolved.

Why? Because last time when I got my upgrade it was the only way to get it done. complain and make a public noise and the managers come to shut you up, and in the process do what you needed doing in the first place. Maybe I'm cranky and difficult but I'm tired of waiting for things to happen.

I do feel a little difficult. I know I worked behind counters for a good decade while studying and looking for work. I've been yelled at by every type of cranky customer, and it's usually not reasonable or fun or easy. But I also know that I worked in that environment, it's possible for one person to manage a busy counter, while answering the phone and keeping the place tidy and organised. So then four people are working, one is helping customers while 3 stare into space and ignore the ringing phone then am I a bad person to tell their management that at least 2 of them need to be shouted at?

Anyway I am currently delighted with my soon-to-be cellphone network, who have bent over backwards to help me get sorted out. Maybe if I thank them profusely (and publicly) enough, my bad karma might be partially replaced?

Thing I've learned: Metallica edition

• When going to a concert have a confirmed number of people you're meeting. Ours changed as people cancelled, appeared, resolved fights with significant others (and therefore un-split the group). 
• Keep this number below 10. Get to 12 and you'll be herding cats.
• DO introduce separate groups of friends together and watch them discover the awesomeness. Do not be confused when they are surprised that you pick good friends. 
• Wear flat shoes, it's quicker to get away when running into significant other's exes in the bathroom.
• Do not go to the bathroom after the start of the show. Besides the fields of passed out/tripping people on the access stairs, you may have to watch a random stranger pee in the sink (with several open bathroom stalls).
• If someone walks past, trips and pours a glass of... hang on that's warm... yip, a glass of pee down your front... I don't know. Enjoy the show. Then get the heck out of there and take a very hot shower. VERY hot (shudder).
• The guys in Metallica may be twice my age, but they're still cooler than I'll ever be!
• try not to lose friends, finding someone in a crowd of 60 000 people with blocked cellphone networks is tricky.

Good show! Now to de-angst in time for Bon Jovi next week!

Things I've learned

Yes, it's been a while. I'm sure the internet held its collective breath as I fell of the planet (internet-wise anyway). In truth, it was less a falling off the planet, and more a starting to live in the Real World.

Things I have learned:

1. How to have fun again, and laugh again, and be silly again. Who I am when I'm not fighting fires and dealing with drama and looking after anyone except me.
2. What it means to make a promise and keep a promise.
3. How lucky I am to have the friends that I do. From showing up on moving day with sandwiches, ready to scrub, to sitting up with me until 2am letting me vent, to not letting me sit at home and mope (no really, 'get in your car and get over here or we're breaking your door down style) to just plain having fun. I am a lucky lucky person.
4. Making new friends is fun.
5. Greek lemon-chicken egg soup is surprisingly un-tasty (recipe here) - please let me know if there is seasoning that could rescue it, it is about as bland as it gets, even with a whole pack of bacon thrown in in desperation (4 hours cooking time for bland soup will do that to a person).
6. Law is fun! I totally got 90 % on my first course, and I'll be going back for the proper degree next year. Having lawyer friends to debate with is even more fun.
7. Nobody has the right to tell you how to feel about something.
8. 'Friends' who break down other people for some childish purpose of being the best/only/favourite friend disgust me. The people who let them disgust me too. Good thing I have awesome friends.
9. I will never be able to sokkie-dance.
10. I do not understand the whole Nicholas Cage thing on the internet, but I think I love it.

Happy black-Friday

seems about right

2013 coming at you

It seems a common theme that 2012 was the hardest year ever for everyone and therefore the world would end. Not so much, but my boss believed it based on what this random missionary on a plane told her that managed to convince her that the world was going to end and we had to run to the Drakensberg. I think someone else responded by lending her the DVD for the movie 2012 and that may have cleared up some of the issues.

When I sat down to think about 2012, I decided that is wasn't a bad year, it was a hard year. It was a year of growth, and that can be painful. Then a whole lot of things happened one the SAME DAY. My mother was attacked at home by armed robbers who tied her up, P1 lost his job because of his epilepsy diagnosis (we won that one, but he is still jobless, and crabby as anything as a result), people went to hospital, people fought...

And I decided dammit, 2012 needs to end now.

Happy 2013 people. May the growth hang on for a while, while my head stops spinning.

I am alive

it's been a while? really?

 

I've always secretly wanted to do that craft projects you find on the internet. I just found the blog of the person who actually tried them. This one had me giggling far too much at work.

 

oh, that. Yes I graduated and now I have a job. And medical aid and pension and I'm trying to buy a house. Good times.

 

you may call me Doctor. Except I probably won't answer because I never get called doctor and the phase of adding it to the end of every email has passed and now I feel embarassed when those people still use it because I was being a snotty brat with people who don't cooperate.

 

it all happened kind of fast. And I miss my lizards. But then I get a paycheck and buy shoes. Such is life I guess.

currently obsessed with

This cover. Amazing how not having Cyndi Lauper’s voice makes it kind of heart-wrenchingly sad. In a totally awesome way of course.

this dress pattern. I’ve wanted something 50s-ish for AGES and I found patterns and now sewing machine is dead and I am sad. And aware that even if I made it it would probably be a disaster (my sewing was tremendous fun but also mild panic as I tried to keep up with my mini-machine, not get my finger sewn through and avoid its enthusiastic bouncing sending it into my lap).

Painted shoes! My Docs are still too shiny and look like school shoes so I am really keen to sand them down and paint them. There are also a bunch of awesome techniques for buying ugly heels and painting them with awesome patterns. I wish I was artistic AND brave. Anyone keen to spend a weekend making a mess?

Sleep. I’m not getting much these days. I seem to alternate between 6 hours of solid sleep one night and about 2 hours of broken sleep the next. I made coffee this morning and forgot to boil the kettle. It’s starting to get to me.

And of course, late night productivity spurts. Last night was insane! I think I did a week’s work in 4 hours.

Nameeeebia!

This is way overdue. I blame swopping computers and not having the one with photos and an internet connection at the same time for a while.

Namibia was amazing and incredible and beautiful and unbelievably stressful. Being stuck in a confined space with my mother for 10 days was not easy. I have a lot of respect for her, but we are just too different and just don’t get along.

Getting to know my grandmother as an adult rather than grandbaby was interesting too. She certainly is incredible for someone nearly at 90.

It was also an opportunity for me to observe two very different women and how they do things: my mother with her ‘take-it-or-leave it’, straight out attitude, and my grandmother who is soft and gentle and ladylike (very much a girl of the 1920s/30s). While I am neither of them, it was like watching an excerpt of ‘how to win friends and influence people’ as I could see what they did and how people around them responded.

I was planning on writing about Namibia in detail but I am rushed with work and I can’t quite get my head around the amazing expanses of nothing and the extreme beauty of the place so I will leave you with some pictures instead.

   

 

So…

I have been shouted at for ignoring the blog, and I do love the blog, it’s just that I have a thesis to finish I hit 80% of draft on Tuesday, helped by a giant lot of personal-life stress that make me insanely productive.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but I’m not sure how long or how far or how much sacrifice it will take me to get there.

In the meantime I’ve found love and kindness and encouragement and support in a lot of places. Last week was the first crisis that didn’t make me want to go to the lab. I feel like I’ve lost and gained immeasurably. Is that even English?

I deactivated my facebook account. then I reactivated it because I was tired of explaining to people that I wasn’t getting messages. I’m not seeing myself installing the app again though. And I don’t get notifications because I turned them off. So I might as well deactivate. but then that takes effort. So yes. No. Who knows?

I starting sewing and LOVED it, only to be terrified by the depressive tailspin when the machine broke (it was a pocket-sized adorable little machine but apparently being dropped a few times wasn’t good for it). I found myself with an urge to paint shoes last week. I think the relief of doing SOMETHING creative with obvious progress-markers was slightly addictive.

Anyway the salt-mines are calling.

How’ve you been?