***
This is the first time my laptop’s been on in 7 days. It made weird dinging noises when I tried to start it up the first two times, nearly gave me a heart attack. It would be terribly fitting for my laptop to really give up the ghost this time. God knows it’s the way things have been going lately. Current war victims:
- Jack
- Jasper
But I will get to that later. Oh by the way, EPIC BLOG OF DOOM WARNING. You’ve been informed.
First, and randomly, last week’s Time Magazine has a feature on Johannesburg and the World Cup. It has the following delightful paragraph:
Few cities in the world can match Joburg’s terrifying reputation for crime and fear –and it has been that way since it was founded.
Doesn’t that just fill one with pride for one’s hometown? As the old joke goes, I’m not scared, I’m from Kempton. To be honest, I’m glad I grew up there. I think it taught me a lot. But honey, that ain’t no way to live.
Oh, the article goes on to talk about how reuniting the city will resolve its problems and all the initiatives in place for the World Cup next year (which I thoroughly look forward to cause I think the criminals are going to have a field day). It appears the backbone of the plan is to plant trees, because apparently, “wherever you make a place greener, you don’t have so many problems….green spaces give people hope. No grime, no crime.” Maybe I’m just cynical but I find a gaping hole in this logic…mostly in the sense that huge amounts of crime go down in places like Central Park (have you watched Law & Order? Honestly, how many bodies have they pulled out of there?) But I digress. No wait, not quite. People do realise there is more than one township in South Africa right? I mean, I don’t see why Soweto always has to hog the limelight. You can do tours of Soweto, so you know, as far as townships go, they’re not too bad off, at least they have a tourism industry. Timbiza, just down the street from my childhood home, does not have that luxury. Am I being flip? I don’t mean to be. It’s hard for me to treat any of this stuff with perhaps the gravity it requires. I spent 14 years there listening to other people do that and it’s kind of made me apathetic to the whole thing. I just take some gleeful sort of pride in coming from a place with a “terrifying reputation for crime and fear.” Clearly, I’m just an idiot like that.
Speaking of Law & Order, UK versions on tonight. I missed it last week and was so not impressed. It is followed by Numb3rs which makes Wednesdays Jen-takes-over-the-TV night. I’m unduly fond of both shows.
Anywho, where to begin? At the beginning I suppose. I’m answering my own rhetorical questions. That’s a bad sign. (Do I know what rhetorical means!) The chaos and destruction of the moving that commenced last Wednesday, culminated in epic amounts of bruises and aching limbs by Friday. Three people are not meant to move an entire house worth of stuff by themselves. Especially when two of them already have a variety of aches and pains (all motorcycle induced, come to think of it) which leaves one to run from one to the other and pick up the slack. Also, this is a terrace house. I’ve climbed more stairs in the last week than I possibly ever have in my life. Even when I climbed to the top of the Voortrekker monument…oh wait, did I do that? I can’t remember. I was there though. We had movers in on Thursday to move some of the bigger things. They were actually very lovely boys. I bought them lunch but I kind of regretted that afterwards when I realised they had wrapped the cabinets in a sort of non-stick plastic wrap which they didn’t remove and which is a total bitch to get off. Ah well, what’s done is done.
We weren’t even a day into the move when Jack had a meltdown. Considering his age, I suppose it’s not a totally unexpected thing. He was overheating and so we’ve discovered that either his head gasket has blown or the thermostat has. Either way, I can’t drive him long distances and pretty much have to stop every couple of blocks to top up his water. A call to the Daihatsu garage suggested it would be cheaper just to replace the entire engine rather than just the blown part. Apparently I’m looking at $2000 here *headdesk* I’m driving Martha around now, most of the time. She’s a really lovely little car. I have to say I’m very impressed with the Getz. Considering that it’s one of the cheapest cars on the market, it really delivers and it’s got all the little comforts you could possibly want. Still, I have to take Jack in on Friday, I hope they can fix him and that it’s not as severe as the guy on the phone seemed to think it was.
Friday saw the last few things dragged over and the old house cleaned. I had taken the day off work to get everything sorted. I also forgot I had a hair appointment so had to rush off to that. I also had a gig that evening which I wasn’t going to pass up, regardless of how sore and tired I was. The Academy Is…! How can you resist. Roze decided not to come so I was left to my own devices. Ironically, I managed to offload my spare ticket to a guy begging for one in front of the venue. I used this unexpected cash wisely…by buying a hoodie. Again *headdesk* it was also around this time that I broke Jasper’s already fragile left cover. Repeatedly shoving it into my back pocket twisted the poor piece of plastic until it snapped. I am now contemplating taking it to Telstra to see if they fix sidekicks, or merely utilizing the wonders of superglue. That would be fine until there came a day you actually wanted the cover off *ponders*
Back on point, TAI were brilliant of course. William is really starting to challenge Adam Lazzara in the microphone acrobatics stakes. I envision a black eye for one of the others in the near future. I don’t know what Mike has done to his hair. The shortness combined with the ridiculous faces he pulls while playing reminded me of a geeky older brother playing guitar hero. Adorkable. I always forget Sisky is actually my age, he never looks it. Especially not with the beard thing he has going on. I so wish they weren’t just a support, the set was far too short. They did have a nice balance between old and new though. It always makes me smile to think that this is really a band I’ve watched grow from demo days. Such love. I realised halfway through that this was actually the first time I’ve seen them sans Cobra Starship. I only stayed for about 8 songs of Anberlin’s set. I love them but I think they’re one of those bands that do more for me from the recorded comfort of my iPod. I was just not that interested in their live performance. That’s not saying anything bad about the band, technically they were completely on form. Even though Stephen was having some major issues with his mike. They played ‘A day late’ which is one of the first songs I ever really loved by them, so I left quite content. I ran into an acquaintance outside the venue, she works for a promoter now so she was preparing to hand out some material. I never quite know what to make of her, but she was really lovely that night and we had a nice chat. I love how my social skills only work when they want to. I’ve been really good lately actually. I’ve been feeling a lot more in control of myself.
Since then it’s just been the madness of trying to unpack things and get them in their right places. There was the obligatory trip to IKEA, since apparently no matter how much my father complains that we have too much stuff, it doesn’t stop him from encouraging the acquisition of more. I did need a chest of drawers though, so I’m not complaining. At least I have somewhere to put my t-shirts now without the threat of them toppling over and killing me every time I open the closet. I’m also not lacking on the space for one. My new room is huge. It’s like a proper room, the one I’ve been whinging for these past 8 years. I also love the kitchen, it’s just such a nice set-up. To be honest, I just love the house. It’s the kind of modern terrace they always advertise around the city. I’ve always liked this sort of thing. It’s full of feature walls I wholeheartedly approve of. My room has one in an off-colour red, so it fits perfectly with my stuff. The study is that institutional prison blue I cannot stand. I however share it with my mum so all our bookcases hide it almost completely from view. My OCD is none too keen on this shared study business since all my furniture is dark wood and all hers is birch. It’s not matching! But no, suppress, suppress. Sacrifices are a natural part of life *zen moment*
I’ll post up pics of everything, such as the fire-hazard view from my bedroom window, just as soon as I find the connection cable for my camera. There’s always something missing.
It felt like an epically long week so when Monday rolled around I was almost glad to go back to work. It didn’t last long since we were so incredibly busy and I had to do end of month. [Side note – how can it be bloody September already? Where has the year gone? My thesis is due in three months! AAAAGH and so on.] I had an awful day yesterday, one thing after another. I was running late for my train and of course that would be the day I couldn’t find parking at the station. Eventually I gave up and parked illegally. I still managed to make good time, so I was only 5 minutes late to my meeting with Mandy. I had been holding out for this for weeks now. I just wanted someone to rip into my creative piece and tear it to pieces. She didn’t do that. She did edit the entire thing professionally and gave me some really useful suggestions that I think I will definitely take on board. I aim to re-write the entire thing and have all the external media done by next week. We get along so well, cause she’s just so laid-back and I feel like I can say anything and there isn’t an expectation of me to do the academic poseur thing. She actually said to me the piece could work fine academically but she wanted to treat me like a professional writer, not a student. It was a really good meeting, I felt like I actually wanted to go out and work on it again afterwards.
So yes, that’s what I’ve been doing with myself. A whole lot of bruise-inducing chaos. I loathe all these boxes still standing around. I may be developing a box-unpacking mania. I was going to mention some current affairs things that have piqued my interest, like that ludicrous school death, and sheer randomness of TV shows such as Talking about your generation which last night asked its contestants to dress up as important figures of their generation and so Gen Y dressed as Harry Potter and Gerard Way, but I’ve sort of run out of steam. Shall go make room in my closet for my shoes instead.
P.S. I realise I never posted that playlist I said I would. The modem was unceremoniously disconnected before I even got a chance to think about it. So it shall go up sometime in the near future.
Music: Bowl of Oranges - Bright Eyes
Mood: Hungry
You're baaaaaaaaaaack!!! TACKLE HUG!!!
ReplyDelete