joburgboy's Xanga

Monday, September 14, 2009

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:02:24 GMT

To anyone who may be reading this, please take note and visit my latest venture - Urban Joburg. Looking at how we as Joburgers live and interact with our city.

Urban Joburg

Thank you :)

Goodbye strawberries

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 07:05:38 GMT

My dearest Xangan readers...

I am afraid to tell you that this era has come to an end. I will no longer be using Xanga, but Wordpress. Xanga has largely been good to me, and so I shall miss it, but Wordpress is a nice, refreshing change, and it's a change that I want to make.

My new blog can be found at

http://joburgboy.wordpress.com

If you wish to keep up to date via RSS, all you have to do is add this site to your subscriptions in your email programme: http://joburgboy.wordpress.com/feed. It will then update you whenever I update my blog.

Goodbye!

Love,

the Joburgboy. x x x

A letter to you

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 19:17:46 GMT

Dearest blogging buddies,

I am about to commence a project.

I am thinking of making the move from Xanga to Wordpress. Mainly because my subcription to Xanga is about to expire, and I don't want to fork out $25 for the premium version again, when I can get a kewl version for free on Wordpress.

So I'm going to be 'double-blogging.' One blog will be here, and the other blog will be here -> http://joburgboy.wordpress.com

Kindly let me know which one you feel is better.

Xanga has been lovely, and very efficient, but I'm feeling the need for a change. Shoot me.

Love, Me.

ps... I can to sort of be going out with someone nice. His name is Tyler (), and he's hot, and he has a pretty MacBook Pro that has all these funky features. He is also a bit of a nut, and has a bit of a whacky sense of humour. Last night was date #2, and we saw this awesome movie at the Out in Africa Film Festival called Boy Culture, which is really about a love story between two gay guys. It's told beautifully, and the characters are played very well by their respective actors, including the gorgeous Darryl Stevens who (if you view the wordpress blog), is the current Hot Men of My Blog candidate.

I even got to meet him on Sunday night, for her also played Noah in the TV series, Noah's Arc. And ok, he's not a famous actor, but he will be. Soon. And then I can say that I've met him. And even if he doesn't become famous, well that's ok, cos he is a bunchkin.

The Eventful Week of Eventualities

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 13:33:17 GMT

Sho... So much to blog for such a busy and eventful week.

The Date: It was magnificent. Euphoric. Glorious. Chocolate.

It started off with a lovely dinner at Soi, which is perhaps one of the Joburgboy's favourite restaurants in Joburg. The Vietnamese/Thai cuisine is to die for, and is extremely popular evidenced by the long line to get in and the equally long wait list. After polishing off a dish of pork in a caramalised sauce with peppers, we headed off for some ice cream at Baglios on Sandton Square. We were rather ingenious with our choice of three different flavours each - that way we both got to taste SIX different flavours each. We then walked around Sandton a bit, spilling our ice cream all over the place (for I feel the ice cream was too heavy for the little bowls we had), after which we decided to go to the very oh-my-gawd Fashion TV Cafe. The Fashion TV Cafe is one hot ass venue, and with our cosmopolitans, we looked like true cosmopolites in the hip glam surroundings of Sandton. The music was good too, and the crowd was glitzy yet rather laid back and friendly. After that, well we went back to our respectives chariots amidst much fraternizing ("to associate with others in a brotherly or congenial way...")

The date was a lovely end to a week that has seen many ups and downs, such as...

The phone call: I believe it was Thursday as I was preparing my presentation on women that I got a phone call from an unknown number. As it characteristic with me and unknown numbers, three thoughts suddenly came into mind: it was either the bookstore where I am serving out my final month of neanderthallic frustration, or it was my new 'employer,' or it was a firm offering (or not) me articles.

It was the latter. However, the moment I heard 'Colleen' on the other end I knew immediately I had not got in. My heart sank as she informed me this was a courtesy call to tell me that it had been a really tough call for the team, but that I didn't make it. She was at least incredibly empathetic to my plight, and after she had wished me luck with my future, I banged my head on my desk in absolute frustration. I'm sooooo tired of being rejected. I'm sooooooo tired of my future being in limbo. All I want is certainty. So after my brief mourning period (I remember thinking to myself "I want to be miff"), I started making plans for my next conquest, that being a clerkship at the Constitutional Court. Me thinks it would be sooooo kewl to get that. I have to submit a piece of writing (I wrote an excellent essay critiqueing the Con Court's decision in the prostitution case, S v Jordan) as well as show evidence in research (which I'm currently doing on xenophobia in South Africa).

The Presentation: On Thursday night my Model UN society held our Opening Banquet to welcome new members and get them mingling with everyone. It was also a good opportunity to celebrate International Women's Day, and we did this by having a skit on women by someone, as well as presentation by me. I made a powerpoint presentation (I shall give the link to it in another post) on two issues affecting women in Southern Africa:

1) The lack of sanitary products in Zimbabwe: With Zimbabwe experience hyper-inflation, and the pulling out of Zimbabwe of the health care company, Johnson & Johnson, the country suddenly found itself with a massive shortage of female sanitary products. And so the country had to import these from South Africa: however, because demand is so high and supply is little, the price has sky-rocketed, and thus the 'ordinary' Zimbabwean woman cannot afford to purchase these products, as they cost roughly half of the average weekly wages. And sooooo... (this is where you should start reading)... there is this international drive to provide women in ZIm with sanitary products, and my presentation was on how we should do the same and help out.

2) Black Lesbians in South Africa: this is a group of women in South Africa that unfortunately is still treated with disdain and are abused by South African males in particular, as their stereotypically masculine ways are seen as challenging male superiority in this very patriarchal society of ours.... And my presentation basically said we must tell people to stop being homophobic and sexist etc etc etc...

The presentation was accompanied at first by 'Little Girl Blue' by Nina Simone, followed by 'Sisters are doing it for themselves' by Aretha Franklin as the presentation got more upbeat and GOOOO-WOMEN-GOOOO-ish. People seemed to like it for they said 'That was a good presentation Thomas,' however there was seemingly an undercurrent of pissed-off-ness amongst my fellow Comm members, for they said I did not consult with them about the presentation...

This leads me to my next point...

My ditziness: There are times when I just do not hear people. Or when I think I say things to people, but I don't actually do so. Or when people say something, and then I say the exact same thing thinking that I'm being incredibly original.

You see, I really did think that I had discussed this presentation with my Comm members: but I hadn't, hence their pissed-off-ness and their surprise about the presentation.

Or this morning, Sarah asking me to get her brown sugar for her coffee. And whilst I was getting Sarah, I saw the brown sugar and thought to myself, "Oh, she WON'T want brown sugar." Dumb ass me.

Or also this morning, at a Model UN workshop for some kiddies going to New York for a Model UN conference, I read a paragraph from a document that Sarah had just read!

Quote Heather Hart: "Someone was asleep!"

Quote everyone else: "Ha Ha Hoooo Hoooo Hee hee."

Quote me: "Oh fuck."

Perhaps this ditziness has something to do with the weird dreams I have been having lately...

The Dreams: I think my weirdest dream has to have been the one where I dreamt I was an old black lady in the Rwandan genocide running through the jungle clutching a baby whilst gun-totting Hutu soldiers were in hot pursuit (I was Tutsi, you see). I escaped by rolling down a hill.

Then about a week ago I dreamt I was observing an Air India 747 taxying out at London Heathrow for a charter flight to Joburg. It was thus full of Indian South Africans. As it took off, however, it blew up, and there was groot skandaal because it was full of SOUTH AFRICANS.

Then two nights ago I dreamt that I was a pregnant blonde woman, who had to get off an Air India flight that was flying Mumbai - Frankfurt - New York, because I was experiencing cramps and was thus in labour. It ended up being a false alarm, however, for I stopped having cramps and was no longer in labour.

Weird, neh?

The interesting lecture: On friday we had a fascinating lecture in my HIV/Aids and the Law course. It was conducted by the fabulous Mark Heywood, who is the director of the Aids Law Project, which does fantastic work in using the law to promote change in the government's pathetically apathetic response to HIV/Aids.

One of the interesting things I learnt was how HIV prevention is to a large degree seen from a masculine perspective. For instance, government will distribute 500-million male condoms, but only distribute 5-million female condoms. Thus if the male does not want to put on a condom, the female is to a large degree powerless in stopping him. If, however, she had easier access to a femdom, it might perhaps be easier to prevent the transmission of the HIV, and in so doing, decreasing infection rates.

Another way to decrease infection rates is through microbicides. Microbicides are compounds that come in the forms of gels and cremes, that can be applied inside the vagina or rectum to protect against STDs, in particular HIV. As this website says, the availability of microbicides would greatly empower women as they are a preventative option that women can easily control and that do not require the cooperation, consent or even knowledge of the partner. Essentially what the compounds do is act as a barrier to the HIV cells from reaching the target cells.

"A recent cost-benefit analysis conducted at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine indicates that the introduction in 73 lower-income countries of a microbicide which reduced the risk of infection by 40%, at 30% coverage, would avert approximately 6 million HIV infections over 3 years in men, women and children (Charlotte Watts, personal communication). In addition, this would reduce the health care costs (excluding the cost of antiretroviral therapy) by a staggering 3.2 billion US dollars. This implies that a microbicide with relatively low-effectiveness could have a substantial impact against the global HIV epidemic if it were used by a significant number of women."

However, because of a lack of funding, governments in poorer countries and civil society have been unable to afford microbicides, largely because, as this website indicates, "large pharamaceutical companies have not invested significantly in this field, pimarily because microbicides are a classic "public health good" which would yield tremendous benefits to society but for which the profit incentive to private investment is low."

Large Pharmaceutical Companies are bastards, neh?

A photo: To make this post visually interesting, I shall post a photo I took of Hillbrow, an inner city suburb in Joburg.

That's all for today kiddies. Hope you had fun!

I'd like to thank my Aunt Esmerelda, my Tannie Magdelena...

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 05:45:55 GMT

WOO HOO - how's THAT?

I have been nominated for the Best LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered) Category at the SA Blog Awards 2007! I must say I was quite surprised, because I've always thought my blog was quite incognito in SA's blogging world, and as a result have kept it very blah blah blah me me me blah blah blah. Now I fear I might need to say something slightly more interesting, like write about Joburg's metro system or what I feel about the impact of the Afrikaans song, De La Rey on South Africa at present.

My fellow nominee, the Reluctant Nomad, writes about these interesting things (he once wrote about Amsterdam's metro system, and also about how mice climb over his feet whilst he is sleeping - hehehe), and so if you just feel you absolutely cannot nominate me, then nominate him..

But I digress - the point is, I'VE BEEN NOMINATED! *yayayayayayay* So please all go to the website - http://2007.sablogawards.com, and vote for me, k? If I win, I'll thank you all in my speech - individual. To vote, simply go to the website, scroll down to the LGBT section, and click on my radio button. I'm soooo excited, I wanna boooogie, I wanna jumpa jumpa jumpa.

I'm also rather excited about life because something gooood happened last night. Something that made me feel like superman. I cannot ellaborate for it involves a fellow blogger (), but it rocked. The result is that I have... er.. um... a date on Friday night. Scooore for me!

One other thing, which many might construe as just absolutely fabulous, is that the weather has taken a turn for the... uh, worse I guess. But given how scorchingly hot it has been in Joburg for the past two-three weeks (and I mean, scorching: Ra, the Egyptyian Sun God, has been strutting his shiz for quite some time now...), it was an absolute relief to wake up to a chilliesh cloudy day this morning. Observe...

This is not my house. It is the view from my room.

However, I see now that Ra is attempting to come back onto the scene, and is fighting his way through the clouds to shine in glory again..

Ra says: "I am Ra, and I'll shine if I want to, shine if I want to, shine if I want to... You will be scorched if I shine on YOU."

Goodbye good people of the world...

Have an enjoyable day, neh?

Booooootiful!

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 20:34:59 GMT

I've just watched such a booooooootiful movie. I watched it with my darling friend Cher, who I don't see nearly enough as I should, but whenever I do I always have such a lovely time with. Great friends always manage to pick up where they left off (*inspiration from Kev Stallion), and Cher and I seem to be quite adept at doing this.

This is us at our 11th Grade Matric Dance (aka the Proms). As you can see, we matched outfits. And although this photo seems recent to me, it was actually taken 6 years ago.

Anyway, the filamus...

I say booooootiful because a) it is the theme of this post and b) the movie was boooooootiful. Not in a beautiful way, but in an oh-so-cute-and-shmoooozy way. See, neh?

The movie was Music and Lyrics starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. I have always loved Hugh Grant in any movie he has done. He has generally always played very likeable characters, and he has always played his parts with characteristic wit and charm, that not only charm many people around the world, but that also charms me! And that smile... gawsh.

Drew Barrymore and Hugh thinking up a song to sing. The music, she said, is like the passion in a relationship; the lyrics, is like the real shiz.

In this movie, he was particularly charming because he sang - and you all know how much singing makes me happy inside. And so I hereby post lyrics to the song one will hopefully find embedded into this post (which it DIDN'T, but anyway...). I absolutely love this song.

Way back into Love
Sung by Hugh Grant and Haley Bennet
I've been living with a shadow overhead
I've been sleeping with a cloud above my bed
I've been lonely for so long
Trapped in the past, I just can't seem to move on

I've been hiding all my hopes and dreams away
Just in case I ever need em again someday
I've been setting aside time
To clear a little space in the corners of my mind

All I want to do is find a way back into love
I can't make it through without a way back into love
Oh oh oh

I've been watching but the stars refuse to shine
I've been searching but I just don't see the signs
I know that it's out there
There's got to be something for my soul somewhere

I've been looking for someone to shed some light
Not somebody just to get me through the night
I could use some direction
And I'm open to your suggestions

All I want to do is find a way back into love
I can't make it through without a way back into love
And if I open my heart again
I guess I'm hoping you'll be there for me in the end
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

There are moments when I don't know if it's real
Or if anybody feels the way I feel
I need inspiration
Not just another negotiation

All I want to do is find a way back into love
I can't make it through without a way back into love
And if I open my heart to you
I'm hoping you'll show me what to do
And if you help me start again
You know that I'll be there for you in the end

I think it is just boooooootiful, and as I sing it with my tone-deaf gusto, I get all lovestruck and look up to the stars that refuse to shine whilst waiting for that something for my soul...

OK, maybe not realllly, but I sing it and I think that it's just booootiful.

Goodnight.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 07:42:09 GMT

So on Friday night Robin, Athena and I made our long trek up to Pretoria to watch Giselle, performed by the excellent ballet company, the St. Petersburg Ballet. They will be performing Giselle and Swan Lake over a period of about four months in Pretoria, Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Durban. Giselle was danced by primaballerina Irina Kolesnikova (who was uber popular with the audience, evidenced by the enthusiastic "YES!" eminating from someone behind me when it was announced at the beginning that she would playing the part).

I cannot say it was my favourite ballet (Swan Lake and the Nutcracker being high on that list), but Giselle was pretty enjoyable. The music is enchanting and the story is sweet too... this was complemented by an excellent cast who did all their Assembles (Swishing of feet resulting in them meeting in the air, somehow!), as well as their En Dedans (moving of the feet in some kind of circle), and the queen did an excellent Arriere (moving backwards on tippy-toes creating the impression of floating on air). All the above fancy shmanzy ballet terms are courtesy of wikipedia, btw. I'm hoping to become one of those ballet affiandoes who is able to identify such moves as they happen.

Then yesterday morning Kev and I went out to the West Rand to give another workshop to little kiddies. I'm happy to say that this workshop went a lot better than the Polokwane workshop last week Saturday. The students were, first of all, a lot brighter than the last bunch, and secondly, I felt I had prepared for the workshop a great deal more thoroughly than the last one, and so I was a lot less nervous about it all. They sang the spirit song with just as much gusto as the last lot, however, their speeches weren't nearly as good, not because they weren't confident or anything (on the contrary, they were, and they adapted to the topic a lot better), but they spoke in Westminster Parliamentary Debating style, which is very specific and should certainly NOT be used when making a speech....

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm going to be talking about blah blah blah, ladies and gentlement, [get faster] I'm going to make sure you understand blah blah blah, LADIES AND GENELMEN, [increase crescendo] today you're going to go away blah blah blah, LAYIE AND GENELMEN, [shout at top of voice] rah rah rah blah blah blah, LAY AND GENELMEN (and the house at large), I thank you."

Honestly, can you imagine that as a speech? I shouted at them , and cursed the debaters at Wits for their parasitical way of encroaching on styles of talking in public.

I think one of the best things about the workshop was that I didn't really feel too tired afterwards. Not like the Model UN briefing session we had on thursday, which was a circus of epic proportions. I went home on Thursday absolutely exhausted (and with Sun Stroke to boot... I was, to quote Kev: "Sweating like a boar." It was scandaaal, I tell you), and developed a new found appreciation for lecturers who have to deal with a class who yaks away whilst you're trying to tell them something.

We had a HUGE turnout, and have landed up with a list of over 40 countries participating in our first debate on the 24th. For anyone who knows anything about Model UN, that's a great deal of countries, and a debate of that size could easily take up the entire day. So we're either going to have to reduce speaking time of participating countries, or we'll have to split the debate into two and reassign countries. Decisions, decisions...

Talking about decisions (and no, I sooooo don't link my paragraphs hehe), I have a decision to make as to whether to keep my Xanga account or take up a new domain (like joburgboy.com, for instance). If I keep my Xanga, I can keep a very good system that has never really diappointed me, I can keep certain features (such as footprints and google search submission), and I can keep a great photo storage system that allows me to store 10 Gigs of photos. If I get a domain, I will have to import this design to somewhere else, and whilst I could get all the other kewl features available on Xanga from other sites, I would have to go out and find them. Also, getting a new domain would require quite a bit of maintenance, which I'm not sure I have the time to do...

One decision i DID make yesterday, which I'm very proud of (and again, I sooooo didn't link my paragraph here), was buying a gorgeous bag yesterday from this shoe shop called Zoom. I saw it and immediately I knew that I just had to have it. So after reasoning with myself that I could spend some of the money I had made at the workshop, I forked out the moola for the following hot bag...

I particularly love it because of it's insignia.. It says 'Aeroflot' on it, which for those of you who are not aware, is the national airline of Russia. Arbitrary, indeed, but arbitrary stuff is seemingly fashionable these days.

Lastly, before I end, in an attempt to make this blog remotely interesting, I am going to tell you that Joburg's CBD is the third fastest growing region in office rentals in Africa and the Middle East, growing at an average of 29%. This is after Abu Dhabi (at 200%) and Kuwait City (at 41%). Kewl, neh?

McDreamy

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 20:06:53 GMT

1. I sat next to McDreamy today in the Law of Evidence. McDreamy is the most gorgeous boy you'll ever come across. He is the quintessential tall, dark and handsome character. He is slightly hairy, and has a colgate smile. His voice is like chocolate, he is intelligent, and to top it off, he's one of the nicest bunnies you'll ever come across. He has no qualms in talking with anyone about anything and everything, and puts you completely at ease with his friendly attitude and demeanor.

Unfortunately, I cannot jump him for he is a) Straight and b) Jewish. I could convert to being a) a female or b) a Jew, but I'm thinking that perhaps that is a bit much for one fellow, especially since the fellow is not likely to fall head over heals in love with me and sire my babies...

2. Wits is dumb. Societies can no longer get cash advances because people have abused the system. Thus if we wish to buy a bottle of Coke for our General Assembly session, we have to provide three quotes and have it minuted of course. Then, we get the money in the form of a cheque or an electronic funds transfer. So it's going to take years to get OUR money out of OUR account. No cash at all. I was told when I went to complain today that this was due to abuse of the system in the past. So I rolled my eyes, but I sort of understood where they were coming from, since we unfortunately do live in a country where there are many dishonest people who would like to ride the system. Nevertheless, Wits made me feel terribly grouchy yesterday, and apparently I was a bit of a Mussolini in our meeting yesterday, because I was barking out orders. I felt awful afterwards.

3. Speaking of Model UN, our Opening Banquet is next week Thursday, and I'm sooooooo excited, for we have organised an exhibition on women, and will be having poetry readings as well as a presentation (given by yours truly) on women. Why women? Well - next week Thursday is International Women's Day, and so we thought what better way to celebrate women than by having a fabulara party? Which just makes me think... we so should have Cosmo's on arrival!

3. I watched the Oscars on Monday night. I never thought I would say this, but I LOVE LEONARDO diCAPRIO! I used to call the poor boy Leonardo diCRAPio, mainly because he annoyed me in his pretty boy performance in Titanic. Even though, in retrospect, his performance was darn good in Titanic. His performance in Blood Diamond was equally as excellent, I thought, and apparently in The Departed he looked particularly gorgeous. So congratulations Leo... You have officially made it to the Joburgboy's Hot Men Of My Blog list. I have gone 'mainstream' with my men... yay. :)

The list thus far includes:

Channing Tatum
Daniel Radcliffe
Dermot Mulroney
Patrick Wilson

4. Jeremy has been on and off the scene. I'm guessing his life is just really busy. Mine is too. So maybe it's just better that he isn't that into me. Although I'm still on the hunt for men. Remember "A?" Well, I got A's magazine for him, phoned him last night to inform him about it, only to be told that a colleague got the magazine for him. "But, thanks man," said A. "Only a pleasure," replied T. Judging by the fact that there just didn't seem to be much interest from his side, I'm not going to put my brave plan of asking him for a drink into action, and all I'm going to do is continue to tra la la my way through my life.

Time to snooooze...

Mokopane... Polokwane... Funkytown!

Sat, 24 Feb 2007 18:09:46 GMT

This weekend Keval and I went to Polokwane. P'wane is a smallish city in the north of South Africa, in the suburb of Limpopo. We stayed at the Garden Court Hotel, which is on the corner of Thabo Mbeki and Paul Kruger Streets. ha ha.

For those of you who are confused, I don't think Paul Kruger would have ever dreamed a bunch of moffies would be snoozing on a hotel at the corner of a street named after him and another named after South Africa's second black president. In fact... I think he would be turning in his grave right now.

We ate at a restauarant that really has to be the worst restaurant in South Africa. It was BAAAAD. So BAD that it was FUNNY. Perhaps we should have known this, given it's name: The Restaurant. Original, ne? We were the only table to get our food. Everyone else - seriasssly - walked out of the restaurant without paying because their food just did not arrive. I don't know what made us special that it warranted our food being cooked for us. I had a rump that, although was HUGE, was terribly bland and dull for a R79 steak. For the equivalent in Joburg, I could get a succulent masterpiece with trimmings. So having abandoned half my rump steak, we headed off to that all familiar sign - The Golden Arches.

And whilst waiting in the drive thru to get a Strawberry Sundae (me) and a Caramel Sundae and Cappucino (Keval), we pretended to be big prancing queens in a small town (ala Priscilla Queen of the Desert) by singing, at the top of our voices, Won't you take me to... FUNKYTOWN.

We got weird looks... which was the aim, I think. :) So herewith two warnings from the Joburgboy: First, don't go to Polokwane - it's not very funky; Secondly, if you do go, don't go to The Restaurant, because it is BAD.

Rather, try the town of Mokopane, which is about half an hour out of Polokwane. Mokopane had a Woolies in it. Mokopane also has a Thabo Mbeki Street. He's popular up north, it seems. Wonder how many towns in KZN have streets named after him?

Anyway, the whole reason why we went up to these pondokie towns is because we were giving a workshop on good communication skills to little high school kiddies who don't speak English at home. Kev had this fab idea to get them singing, which worked, and so we led them singing in their little Jaap v.d Someone Saal (School Hall). I felt like a teacher. Keval was of course brilliant in his workshop skills; I, however, felt that I have much to learn, as I didn't feel confident and I didn't feel that shiz I normally feel when giving presentations and the like. But it's the first of three workshops, and so I know where my weaknesses and strengths are now, and I shall build upon these.

I think that's all for now... However, before I go, I must pimp Facebook to you all. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=756450112. Dearest Sarah bunny introduced me to it, and I'm sort of addicted to it. It's better than My Space IMO. So add yourselves everyone!! Then we can all be friends... :)

Lieffies vir julle....

Welcome to It's Nice to be Nice

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 20:58:03 GMT

Jeremy has seemingly gone off the map. He came around with me on Sunday night to watch Hair at my friend Robin’s place. We seemed to be having a good time together, getting all cutchie-koo with each another, however, I detected a distinct “I’m slightly irritated with hanging out with you” presence.

This has been confirmed by the fact that the only communication I have received from him over the past three days has been the following sms: “JESUS NEVER FAILS! Pass this on to 8 people and something good will happen to you in the next 24 hours.”

I didn’t send it on.

But whatever. He did something on Sunday night that made me think it is just not a good idea to pursue anything with him. And there was other stuff too, which miffed me just a tad.
I had an interview with a medium sized corporate firm in Rosebank on Monday. I was not looking terribly forward to it, given the fact that the areas of law they practice in look sooooooo boring (Property, Tax etc… zzzz).

So I went into the interview feeling rather apprehensive about it all, but then came out feeling excited about it, because like Bebber Bentzel Wowens, the people who interviewed me were sooooo nice and friendly. Luckily for me, I had someone interviewing me who I know personally through the bookstore (and even before then, when I was a child and was friends with her son), and so it put me at ease almost immediately.

In addition to the friendly atmosphere of the interview, I got all my legal questions correct. They gave me an example of a surety contract, a consent form, and a set of government regulations, and I was required to read the regulations and then answers questions on the validity of the contract and the consent form based on the regulations. Sort of like a comprehension test. I normally hated comprehension tests, but this one I got 100% on. Confirmed by them saying, “Yes, that is the correct answer” after each answer.

SCORE FOR ME.
Yesterday was a watershed day for me.

I resigned from my job.

Yes, after months of complaining about the lacklustre management of my store, as well as the way I’ve been treated there, I finally kicked the bucket by handing in my resignation letter yesterday. Needless to say that the management accepted the letter with subtle glee, no doubt delighted that the Complaining European Brother has finally left the store: all they need to do now is get rid of the Complaining European Sisters, and they’ll be left with the Non-Complaining African Brothers.

I felt a mixture of relief, but also of sadness. Relief because I will now have weekends free, I can now go on holiday whenever I want to, and most importantly, I don’t have to deal with the Management anymore. No doubt I’ll have to deal with another set of Management in the future, but for now, I can be a gay poppy in a field of sunflowers.

But moreover, I feel sadness because I really have enjoyed working at Elusive Books. I’ve made lifelong friendships with two friends who mean the absolutely world to me. I’ve met the most interesting people and have learnt to network and converse over the most arbitrary of topics with people I have never met. I have dealt with people such as Mrs Woolf who come into the store looking for a fight, and who caused you to get so uptight that the only way you could marginally calm down was by drinking half a bottle of Rescue Remedy. And I even though I hated you at the time Mrs Woolf, and thought that you were the biggest bitch this side of the Vaal, without the slightest concept of people’s emotions, I learnt that one should not take pissed off customers personally, and one can only attempt to deal with their problems as quickly as possible and recognise that they’ve just had an uptight day, and unfortunately, you’re the perfect punch bag at the moment. I’ve also learnt that smiling at people not only makes their day nicer, but it makes your day nicer too, and it invariably reduces the chances of a pissed-off customer by at least 50%.

But I’m mostly going to miss my shifts with Buckles and Sarah, and the complete mischief we got up to, whether that be…
- Singing to songs behind the counter
- Spotting hot men in between Psychology and Gardening
- Creating videos and taking photos of us in store
- Looking at other people’s arbitrary blogs during work
- Ripping off poor people just walking by (I know… we’re mean, bad karma etc)
- TOFU-ing, HOMOFU-ing, and INDOFU-ing men (this another mean thing we do)
- Asking people what they do for a living
- Getting hot men to sign up for loyalty cards and then googling them in a very We’re-Not-Stalking-You way
- Finding out that hot men are not only single, but also GAY, and then spotting them in their cars and, as they drive like maniacs down Jan Smuts Avenue, CHASING THEM in an attempt to… I dunno… do something.
- Hosing at the fact that Sarah gets hit on by some dude who does so by giving her a Freshly Ground CD. Which would seem lovely and romantic, except for the fact that Sarah hates Freshly Ground with almost a disturbing passion. The irony…
- Or hosing at the fact that Shakti gets hit on by Psycho Johnny from the Congo-Brazzaville, who via a card that played Mozart’s Fur Elise, informed her that he wanted to marry her and produce babies with her back home.
- Telling Michelle Botes (Cherel in Isidingo) what she will be getting up to in Isidingo this week

As you can see… I really have had such a fantastic with these two gals, and whilst I will no doubt see them almost every day when I’ve left, alas month will be the last time I experience such fun at work with them.

So as I’m listening to Fidelity by Regina Spektor, and whilst I’m feeling all soppy, I wish to tell my two bunnies who will hopefully read this at work that they are incredibly special to me, and I will always remember my time at Elusive Books with them with a great deal of fondness. You guys rock.

Lastly, I have got this both from Luke and Sarah, so herewith my response… Feel free to use it on your blogs too! J

Here goes:

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

a. Ever been so drunk you blacked out?
Nope. I stop before I get there.

b. Put a body part on fire for amusement?
Not me, but I’m pretty sure I’ve tried it on someone else…

c. Kept a secret from everyone?
Yep…

d. Wanted to hook up with a friend?
I think so…

e. Ever thought an animated character was hot?
Aladin? lol

f. Had a New Kids on the Block tape?
No… though I think I should go download some stuff to see what all the fuss is about.

g. Been on stage?
YES! I love the stage! Hell… this blog is a stage. And you’re the audience.

--- Favourites ---
a. Shampoo?
Not shampoo, but Lanza Mint Conditioner. It’s amazing.

b. Soap?
Strawberry flavoured soap… You get it from a stall in Rosebank.

c. Colour?
Salsa Red!

d. Day/Night?
Night… definitely night

e. Summer/Winter?
SUMMER!!

f. Favourite TV series?
Sex and the City, Grey’s Anatomy, Ally McBeal

g. Food
Prawns in lemon and garlic butter

h. Favourite Advert
The Nando’s ones are normally very good

i. Favourite Movie
East is East, Life is Beautiful, Little Miss Sunshine

--- Right now ---
k. Eating?
I had desert. Banana and custard drizzled in honey. It was lovely.

j. Wearing?
¾ long jeans, and a t-shirt that says “8^th Wonder of the World: Rottweiler.” I also have underwear on.

l . HAIR is?
Light brown. AND IT’S CUT! And therefore controllable. Hallelujah.

m. Drinking?
Just finished drinking a cup of Nescafe coffee.

n. Thinking about?
That I should go to work soon in order to ensure a productive day tomorrow.

o. Listening to?
I was listening to Regina Spektor, but now I’m listening to the Shrek soundtrack, which is brilliant.

--- Last 24 Hours ---

q. Cried?
Nope

r. Meet ANY new FRIENDS?
Nope

s. Cleaned your room?
No actually… it’s a bit of a disaster at the moment.

--- Do you believe in ---
a. Yourself?
Most of the time.

b. Your friends?
Yup

c. Santa Claus?
Nope. And it’s Father Christmas.

d. Tooth Fairy?
Nope. Although I always used to leave my slippers out when a tooth came out and the parentals filled it with a R2 coin.

e. Destiny/Fate?
Never used to, but some recent experiences have me wondering about it.

f. Angels?
Nope…

g. Ghosts?
Nope…

(boring, aren’t I?)

--- Friends and Life ---

a. Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend?
Alas not. I think it’s a bad thing at the moment. I need some action dammit.

b. Who have u known the longest of your friends?
Sarah. She flushed my Valentines Card down the toilet in Std. 4

c. Who's the shyest?
Buckles.

d. Who's the weirdest?
Luke is the goofiest I think.

e. Who do you go to for advice?
Sarah, Buckles and Kevallion the Stallion

f. When do you cry the most
I cannot identify any particular time… So I guess it’s when I’m really upset
I’m going to end off here. I wrote this in Word: it has taken up 5 pages – makes me wonder how long my blog would be. I leave you with some photos. It will be the start of my catalogueing on my blog of where I have been to in the world thus far:

The island of Dominica, Eastern Caribbean. Dominica was one of the poorest of the Caribbean islands, one that hadn't been as affected by hoardes of cruise tourists. The Queen Mary II, however, stopped off here on our cruise, and we got the chance to visit this gorgeous islands of deep gorges, jungles, waterfalls and high mountains, and exemplified by the name of this roadside stall we came across called....

Simple, isn't it?

An equally lovely island was St. Kitts, where we visited this GORGEOUS beach. It was a dream...

That's all.. Goodbye now.