Excuses for skipping

Well now that it’s rained for over a week I’ve been going crazy(er) all cooped up. I guess over the last year I’ve become a relatively active person and i didn’t notice until I’ve been stuck inside!

A few days ago we had almost 100 mm of rain, and that was before the heavier rains started. Today was like living in a submarine – freezing horizontal rains separated occasionally by insanely dense fog. I can’t run as the roads are basically gravelly mud-slicks right now and I don’t really want serious injury at this stage. I can’t walk as I only brought one jacket here and it’ll never dry once it gets rained on. Tai chi is a non-option as i have to move around a lot and besides the total lack of level floors, my sword tends to connect with the light fittings (and after the explosions I treasure the ones that still function). It’s so cold that as well as watching my muscles melt back into goo, I really need to move around and warm up. I did a few dancing-like-a-maniac-around-my-living-area sessions, which confused the kudu who were looking through the window at the time. I’m not much of a dancer though, it’s easier with strobe lights and people around you who also look silly.

So when I went to town today (fun driving when everywhere is at least ankle-deep in mud and water!) and bought a heater for the lizards, I decided that desperate times = desperate measures and got myself a skipping rope.

Firstly, wow, I suck! It took me about four tries to manage more than about 10 ‘skips’  without a)tripping myself up, b)falling over my own feet c) tying my feet together or d)smacking myself in the face with the rope.

But now I’m really getting into it! Whenever I start feeling cold I get my ipod, put on ‘Excuses for Skipping’ (they’re a very awesome band!) and skip until I feel warmed up.

I’m beginning to wonder what other skills I’ve lost since childhood – tree-climbing and skipping have been salvageable, but I still can’t cartwheel or do a handstand. And there we think the kids are playing, while actually they’re in a brutal training regime…

The waiting game

So I'm basically just sitting in my lab, waiting for my supervisor to give some work back to me with comments. I remembered that I used to write arb stuff while waiting before and I thought I'd try again. I really miss having a blog going all the time. It got annoying when people I didn't want reading it read it, but I guess that's part and parcel of sticking something on the internet isn't it?

I just realised I made some coffee right before lunch when Luke came, proofread my work (not sure how carefully, considering that he had an hour to collect me, drag me off for lunch and then get to a lab. Thanks Luke, you is totally rox as always! The coffee is still sitting there... it's in a travel mug, but not the best one, so is probably lukewarm at best (no puin intended!).

Oh! and there was some guy in the Matrix (our student centre) dressed all in black with a floorlength leather coat, just like Neo in "the Matrix" How cool? He was kind of old and had this funky mohawk-with-recending-hairline thing going on, but it was very exciting!

And I was supposed to go to the zoo today, but I don't think I'll make it :( sad times. I missed out on a lot of work because there was no power at university for the whole of yesterday afternoon. Sad times once again! And I went to bed late because I was watching Bones (with some guilt, because I am the anti-crime show person, but I love it! I like the nerds in the lab, I can relate!). It makes me laugh! Not the dead people part, that's pretty gross, but the people are fnuny!

Oh yes, for the record, the coffee is just lukewarm enough to not be cold. And I have nothing against cold coffee. So I will leave it for a while. Hopefully I will not leave it standing over the weekend. Like last time...

I'm listening to Fool's Garden. I don't know anything about them, but they're cool. Funny. Funny is good these days. I tried to do stats earlier, and found out completely, totally and utterly that there is no relationship between 2 variables. Fun times! I got 3 stats books out the library and am attempting to brush up on my somewhat rusty knowledge! Teh annoying thing is that I really like the theory of stats. I love discussing it and figuring out what goes where and what it all means... but actually doing it is difficult! Which is just incredibly frustrating!

Fool's garden is... OH! They're the lemon tree people. That makes so much more sense! thank you Wikipedia! I was about 10 or 11 when Lemon Tree came out and my cousin and I sang it CONSTANTLY! And I wasn't exposed to contemporary music at all as a little kid... except Bon Jovi which my best friend loved. They came and played a concert here when I was around 10 or so, the first big concert I remember. I think a lot of bands stopped coming with the violence and the poilitical situation and stuff. I don't remember.

This is a bit of a random post. I'm sorry it's been a while!

The book quiz

So I was arbing around waiting for my lab lock to be fixed (I feel nervous leaving my stuff in the lab when the lock occasionally falls off the door... It's also hard to lock i the first place! So I found this book quiz. this is what it came up with:

You're The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe!

by C.S. Lewis

You were just looking for some decent clothes when everything changed
quite dramatically. For the better or for the worse, it is still hard to tell. Now it
seems like winter will never end and you feel cursed. Soon there will be an epic
struggle between two forces in your life and you are very concerned about a betrayal
that could turn the balance. If this makes it sound like you're re-enacting Christian
theological events, that may or may not be coincidence. When in doubt, put your trust
in zoo animals.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Interesting huh?

ok, so that was boring!

I just realised how incredibly boring the last few posts were! So the daily updates will be stopping, effective immediately!

Right now I am one of two people in South Africa (the other one is the masters student sitting a few feet away) currently NOT watching us play in the world up rugby final. I get occasional updates from people at home, and fortunately I can get an internet connection through my phone so i can watch the "live" score updates, although they're a bit slow to update - obviously the people in charge are kind of caught up in the watching and don't update all to often.

Fieldwork is going fine, it's been cold and rainy for a few days, which has given me a bit of a break and time to breathe a bit! I've also got used to walking a lot, so I got a bit cranky from sitting around so I carried on with my afternoon walking all over the farms, and occasionally I go running as well. I'm pretty pathetic and don't go very fast or far, but I enjoy it. We're also watching loads of DVDs, nothing particularly inspiring, but we've watched a LOT of stuff (I've watched almost an entire season of Ally McBeal, but reached the point of NO MORE this afternoon. Weird how being in the middle of nowhere makes you enjoy stuff that you'd normally avoid (not that I avoid it usually, but I can't get through that much in one sitting).

With the bad weather (which according to the 5-day forecast isn't going to improve) my entre schedule has been pushed back a few days, which is worrying as I was scheduled to finish retrapping before I have to go back home for a day or 2. As it is I'm going to have a bit of a gap in my data from that. I can only hope the wether is lousy while I'm away!

Otherwise I'm drinking a lot of tea waiting for 10pm so I can measure my lizards again and then I'm going to bed! AAARGH! this rubgy is killing me!

because I'm too lazy to post, and I don't want to annoy all my friends

Sarah just sent this to me. I generally don't like sending these around because I know a lot of people get annoyed by the 'send this back!' part. I'm also too lazy to make a real post because (short of going to a dress fitting, downloading articles and making a bead coaster) I've been pretty unproductive and have nothing interesting to say.

Here goes:

Remember to send yours back to the person who sent it to you!

a. Ever been so drunk you blacked out?
Once. I promised myself it would never happen again.

b. Put a body part on fire for amusement?
At work we used to pour Benzine on our hands and light it and then high-five the flam to each other. It was hot, but it didn't really burn us. It was so much fun!
c. Kept a secret from everyone?
Yes, I have quite a few. The trick is to keep quiet about the existence of said secret and then nobody bothers you about it.

d. Wanted to hook up with a friend?
Does making friends with someone because you wanted to hook up with them count?

e. Ever thought an animated character was hot?
The captain in Mulan...

f. Had a New Kids on the Block tape?
No

g. Been on stage?
A lot...

--- Favourites ---
a. Shampoo?
This stuff my mom got me that smelled like bubblegum. I've enver been able to find it again.

b. Soap?
The Clicks moisture burst range.

c. Colour?
Yellow and blue

d. Day/Night?
It depends on how much sleep I've been having

e. Summer/Winter?
Autumn

f. Favourite TV series?
Lost or Prison Break.

g. Food
Tomato soup, peanut butter curry, anything with creamed spinach and/or feta

h. Favourite Advert
that Cell C one where the lady keeps hurting herself.

i. Favourite Movie
The Boondock Saints, Thank You For Smoking

--- Right now ---
k. Eating?
I just had lunch, which was a chicken, lettuce and tomato sandwhich on wholewheat superhealthy bread.

j. Wearing?
Jeans, slops and a blue tshirt

l . HAIR is?
dark brown. Straightened at the moment thanks to my fantastic boss!

m. Drinking?
water

n. Thin king about?
Getting to work! Must. Stop. Procrastinating!

o. Listening to?
The new Faithless album. It's really awesome!

--- Last 24 Hours ---

q. Cried?
No
r. Meet ANY new FRIENDS?
yes
s. Cleaned your room?
no

--- Do you believe in ---
a. Yourself?
Not really
b. Your friends?
yes
c. Santa Claus?
not anymore. We used to booby-trap our rooms every christmas. I think the mousetrap in the Christmas stocking is what ended it for us.
d. Tooth Fairy?
I had the tooth mouse when I was small. I used to leave seeds for him with the tooth in a slipper by my door.
e. Destiny/Fate?
I think we make our own.
f. Angels?
Yes
g. Ghosts?
no
--- Friends and Life ---

a. Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend?
no. I think it's a good thing at the moment.

b. Who have u known the longest of your friends?
Cathy. we meet when I was 2 weeks old.

c. Who's the shyest?
probably Lynne.

d. Who's the weirdest?
that's about a 20-way tie. We're scientists...

e. Who do you go to for advice?
Lara, sometimes Jo.

f. When do you cry the most
When I'm stressed out.

________________________________________________________

Unproductive in my bizarreness

Weird stuff is still happening. I've got to the stage where I can say "Oh look, a goldfish just carried a man out of a burning building"as if it were perfectly normal. Not really, but it's getting to that.

I got my flashdrive from my supervisor today. It's really pretty, white, 2Gig, quite fast data transfer (at least into m laptop, not my desktop). At the moment I'm typing this to pass the time while I copy the last batch f music from my desktop to put it on my laptop. i have a pretty big usic collection, so that's taken quite a while!

I had a dress fitting for the wedding yesterday. My blood pressure plummeted after about half an hour and I nearly passed out (high heels and all). I fund out that sugar water really does help and that it is possible to retain your sense of humour when you're feeling awful and nobody around you can speak English. I also had a really long talk with my future sister-in-lw, which was fantastic!

Today is my last day with my supervisor around for a while, so I'm trying desperately to get everything sorted out so I can just get some work done while he's away without needing him to ok anything. I haven't really succeeded because there are so many distractions at wits. to be honest I think i'm going to spend the next week or wo at home just working like crazy. I intend to have a draft of my proposal ready by the end of next month, so I ust get my butt in gear for this. I refuse to be apathetic about this!

Otherwise I've been spectacularly unproductive for the last few days and that's about it. My music is copied, so I am going to attempt to ge back to work.

That Ipod game

I'm at wits, downloading articles on our freakishly fast new internet connection (seriously, I used to mess around and blog and stuff while things were downloading. This new efficiency is disconcerting!).

Anyway, I'm not sure if it's because I just saw Laura and she mentioned her Ipod or because it's just been stuck in my head lately, I decided to play the Ipod game.

Yes, it has one another victory!

Here goes:

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool...

01. Opening Credits: 'Per Te', by Josh Groban. It's good credit's music, I can imagine the deserted street with bits of rubbish drifting around (black and white of course).

02. Waking Up: 'Strength and Honour' for the Gladiator soundtrack. I do wake up pretty slowly...

03. First Day at School: 'We're dancing' from Center Stage. Man, it's an annoying song. Why do I even have it? I hated school, so it's pretty apt... but the first day was fun!

04. Falling in Love: 'All Understood' by Jack Johnson

05. Fight Song: 'Run on' by Moby

06. Breaking Up: 'I just don't think I'll ever get over you' by Colin Hay (Garden State soundtrack)

07. Prom: 'When you were young' by the Killers

08. Life's Okay: 'You are the world' by Live

09. Mental Breakdown: 'Come Sail Away' from Southpark

10. Driving: 'Harvey the wonder hamster' from weird Al

11. Flashback: 'When you come' by Crowded House

12. Getting Back Together: 'Daffodil lament' by the Cranberries

13. Wedding: 'Never let go' by Deep Forest

14. Birth of a Child: 'Somebody Kill Me' by Adam Sandler

15. Death Scene: 'Fall' by Something Corporate

15. Funeral Song: 'When you say you love me' by Josh Groban

16. End Credits: "Clont Eastwood' by the Gorillaz

this is weird!

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.