new
apartment!
omfg - i've now unpacked and as of now have an address :) such a pretty place.
on my way out of the building, a book in the stairwell caught my eye: "how
to save your own life". i was so busy staring as the title, i almost
killed myself falling down the stairs.
figures.
coffee 'n pool 'n coffee:
the dog finished his basics yesterday, so to celebrate we went out on the town.
we didn't shut up for one second, it was really nice to talk again :) we began
with a cup of coffee, walked to the
the waitress was absolutely one of the sexiest girls i've ever seen. so much
so that whenever she came past it took about a minute for the game to resume.
at the end of the evening, i went to ask her out, and
<flashback>a couple of months ago the dog and i were in the
it turns out that her boyfriend and i look almost identical (she tells me i'm
better looking ^_^), and he has the same name as the dog.
bizarre.
we then went back to the same coffee shop, gabbed until about 6am, and then
parted company.
it looks like the dog'll be joining my team this coming week - so cool!
my first awol:
i discovered the other day, that i've been doing translation work for her
ex-best friend without knowing it, so when i was told i had to finish it i went
over to her office in person to complete the job, without asking permission.
that was a bad idea, and my commander was NOT pleased.
wednesday: a pissy day, generally unpleasant. continued the work i'd been
assigned on monday / tuesday (can't remember), and it's a lot. by the time i
got back to the hostel i was in a really foul mood, so i went for a run. by the
time i got back i was wiped out - and i arrived AS the security guard was
throwing someone out of the building. the perfect day for a fight, and i missed
it.
figures.
i'm off in a bit to a great gathering, including my relatives from
Friday,
December 31, 2004 6:02 PM
wow
- it's been a week since i updated... i don't remember too much of it, either.
this past weekend saw me confined to the base, patrolling in the pouring rain.
t'was actually quite fun, i really enjoyed behaving like a soldier's supposed
to.
this morning, i began my day with great coffee and an enormous doughnut, and
signed the contract for my apartment. i then missioned to the bank, paid the
first installment (plus deposit, a frightening sum of money), and then dealt
with my social security. i got back to the base around noon, *just* in time to
go with my team for lunch, and when i got back discovered, to my enormous
delight, a belt on my desk - one that fits me!
it's amazing how much better life is when you're not constantly constricted
around the midsection.
that's pretty much the most interesting things that have happened. i'm doing a
bit of work, theoretically, and then going to bed. g'nite!
Tuesday,
December 28, 2004 9:10 PM
if
my weeks keep flying by so quickly, my army service will be done any minute...
yesterday was a pretty sucky day, but all's well that ends well. i went to view
the studio apartment i'm going to move in to. i got lost on the way... very
lost... i walked for hours... i needed to pee... badly..., but eventually found
the place. turns out it's in a really good area.
the apartment is fan-friggin'-tastic! i wow'ed, and whoa'ed and ohmygod'ed for
about an hour. it's perfect. i can't wait!
i woke up this morning around 6.30, and coughed and hacking and sinusitis'ed my
roommates awake. they weren't too happy either. i made my way through to
ra'anana, to the telfed building, and spent an interesting hour sorting out the
contract - it was really weird to be immersed in a south african environment
like that, and i hear the whole building that i'm moving into is very similar.
w00t!
the weather was amazing, and i had myself a coffee and doughnut breakfast while
waiting for the bus. by the time i got to the base, my spirits were lifted
considerably, and i had a good day. now i'm waiting for permission to sign the
contract, and it's all good. i just realized, as i write this, that i was meant
to take the contract to the post-office, so it's an automatic day's delay already...
bah, humbug.
i came to work, picked up my media, took it to the base, then returned and have
been abusing the internet since. i'm on my way home in a bit, as soon as i've
finished my KoLing... <addicted> :/
i'm still more than a little surprised that i just put away a fair amount of
pizza, after eating pancakes for supper. hmmm.
Monday,
December 20, 2004 9:28 PM
i
ended up working until 7.30, and was completely bombed by the time i made it
back to the hostel. i dropped off to sleep immediately, and woke up around 2pm.
i went milling around all the nice areas of tel aviv, and some of the
not-so-nice ones too, and spent the early evening in front of the telly, where
i was joined by a really sexy and interesting girl, and we talked for hours.
a friend of wolfman's picked me up, and we went through to wolfman's birthday
party, which was really awkward. watched some tv, talked a bit fo crap, and
then went back to the hostel... at 2am.
i woke up at 8.30 or so, spent the morning watching tv / sleeping, and in the
afternoon went milling about (which included an incredibly chilled cup of hot
chocolate, and some random internet time), before coming to herzliyah to work,
which i've just finished.
and i've just discovered that my teammates are no longer interested in inviting
me to their get-togethers, so i'm going back to the hostel to prepare for a
heavy week.
but DAMN, i've needed this one.
Saturday,
December 18, 2004 11:09 PM
not
bad, though. a little upsetting, there're some changes taking
place in our unit, and i've discovered that there's a chance that i
might have to leave... needless to say, that upsets me a lot. i'm just
hoping it'll all be fine.
we worked hard this week, i learned a lot. i've just found out this
morning that my application for the studio apartment has been
accepted! yay! so monday morning i'm going to pick up the contract,
and at some stage i have to have a look at the apartment, and
according to them it'll be ready for me to move in within a week or
two :) i'm quite excited.
last night, i went out with a couple of friends (yogi, and the guy who
got me into my unit) to a really fancy sushi bar - i thoroughly
enjoyed myself, but i only got to bed around 2am... i promptly
overslept, by an hour, but fortunately i managed to get to her
base on time (we had a "thing" for lone soldiers). i got to see her
in uniform - kinda makes me sad we're not together anymore :P
i managed to find the place where SSSO's daughter's "brita" is
happening, to discover that i got the date completely wrong, and it's
next week friday. now i have time to come up with a card and a gift,
no ideas there.
i had to go through the induction base to get a bus back to my base,
so i went past the academic corps to thank the girl who helped me
out... and today was her last day in the army! serious luck, that was
:)
i'm now at work, completely exhausted, and we're here till 5am.
tomorrow i have to decide whether to stay in the area, do some work,
and go to a friend's birthday party, or to go back to the kibbutz and
get some sleep. this is a real dilemma.
Thursday,
December 16, 2004 7:44 PM
engrish.com,
that is. make your way there.
on a slightly more journally note:
saturday night was alright, the company was good and it's the first time i've
had sambuca since i was 16. it's also the first time i've been informed, in a
pub that claims to be irish, that no, there's no guiness available here...
what sucked about the evening is that i found it nigh impossible to follow any
of the conversations, due to my distinct lack of hebrew.
sunday:
sunday was a CRAP day. it all started with me talking to the head of our
division, about the weather in
for the rest of the day my brain simply refused to process anything in hebrew,
and every instruction i received had to be repeated 5 times, which annoyed the
crap out of my teammates, and bugged the hell outta me. and it just so happened
to be a day filled with work.
i did almost all of my work in english, and was informed that i would have to
translate it all to hebrew. so i sat until 9pm, with a f***ing dictionary,
looking up each and every word. i was so pissed off when i got back to the
hostel, that i literally kicked the walls until i got rid of all my excess
energy, and then stretched out properly for the first time in ages. i spoke to
my mom, vented a bit, and then went to bed...
to get up bright and early to go on a daytrip.
our dept. head volunteered us, and we had no choice. and i had more important
things to do...
anyway, it was semi-enjoyable - there were at least a couple of people to talk
to, and the areas of
i got back fairly late to the hostel, sat talking with timmy, did my laundry,
and went to bed - i got new bedsheets, so i folded everything the way one
normally finds it in a hotel - i slept great!
i continued working this morning, turned out the problem i was having with the
software concept was a problem inherent in the development environment, and so
aside from a simple case of forgetting to save... D'OH!... it really wasn't my
fault. so that's the assignment for tomorrow.
oh - and i set up my personal computer in my office. after removing about an
inch of dust off of all the components, and scraping the fans clean, and force-reseating
the memory, i finally have access to all my shit again :) such a nice feeling.
and now we can listen to MY music, and watch movies whenever we have to be on
alert.
AWESOME!!
i've come to work just to use the net, so now that that's abused, and i've
spoken to sammy for the first time in ages, all that's left to do is play some
KoL and then go to bed.
i like this day better now.
Tuesday,
December 14, 2004 8:00 PM
well,
that was interesting. last night, i was so buggered that after watching the
first die hard (r0xx0red!), i forgot to change into a nice t-shirt
before going to her family for supper... and so i arrived there in a
standard-issue army t-shirt, and had to borrow from her boyfriend.
whoops.
supper was nice, but i was too exhausted to deal with all the people and
noise... and screaming children.
i got home around 11, crashed, and woke up at lunchtime - in time for an
AMAZING braai, followed by liqueur, coffee and ice-cream.
mmmm ^_^
spent the afternoon coding, most successfully - my payment is coming in the
form of a p5 glove! w00t!
i'm on my way to visit SSSO, and then i'm going with some of my army buddies to
a pub somewhere. or, that's the plan, at any rate.
Saturday,
December 11, 2004 8:05 PM
by
the time we finished working this morning, i was completely broken. i somehow
managed to transport myself to the bus station, and managed to keep my eyes
open all the way back to the promenade.
where i was accosted by a horrifically drunk man from seattle, who was
convinced that i wanted to talk to him. as dead as i was, he managed to pull me
into a serious argument due to the sheer stupidity of his statements...
i snuck past the sleeping guard, took the keys to my room, had a shower and
packed for the weekend. and then made my way to the bus.
there was no space on the bus, so i had to stand. i was so bombed that i kept
passing out, waking myself violently every time as my knees buckled. it amazes
me that not one person on the entire bus offered to let the obviously wasted
soldier rest.
bastards.
i forgot that the bus that i took doesn't stop on the stretch of road that i
needed to be on, and then managed to get on the wrong bus back - fortunately
the bus driver wasn't too much of a prick, and dropped me off within 10 minutes
of my destination.
i've slept absolutely brilliantly - but i've got so much crap in my head from
the last two days that most of my processes are on hold... i reckon naptime is
coming up :) breakfast was eggplant-pasta. as much as i hate eggplant, it
really wasn't bad at all!
i'm KoLing, mailing, and then i reckon a dvd and/or sleep will do.
Friday,
December 10, 2004 2:46 PM
i'm
listening to trance for the first time in over a month - good, good trance. i
can't believe how good it feels, my entire system has just gone from tired to
wired in under 5 seconds.
works about to begin, which kinda sucks, but i've spent the past few hours
KoLing, clearing email, and generally laying about; i guess i kinda chilled
enough anyway.
*bounce* *bounce*
12:14 AM
i'm
just about hitting the halfway mark on my day... i'm on a break between a very
full day in the army, and a long night of helpdesk...
i'd try putting my week in perspective, but i don't have any. and i don't care.
i'm very, very happy in my relatively isolated environment, learning
interesting things (it's the beginning of the week where i become an oracle
dba), and generally enjoying myself.
the only downer: my first shift back at work coincides with a huge party for
our unit :( *sigh*
due to some heavy influence from invader zim, and the fact that our team
leader not only has a high rank, but is also several centimetres taller than
anyone else in our department, i'd taken to calling him "my tallest".
i've been officially warned that if i refer to him as "my tallest"
again, i'll find myself performing every nasty task that he can come up with,
and being practically confined to the base, for the next 2.5 years... needless
to say, i stopped, but it's hard to break the habit!
i finally finished speaker of the dead: i loved the story, hated the
writing style and pace. it felt like it was targeted at an audience aged 5-13.
i managed to completely ruin the book itself with superglue, by accident,
this morning - i have no idea what i'm going to tell the owner... after i've
borrowed his other books.
i just finished reading a recent obituary for my father, and it's brilliant - i
couldn't stop laughing when i finished it, it was written by someone who didn't
have any qualms about telling it like it is - all respect ^_^
i still haven't seen AvP, and i'm no longer sure that i'll get a chance
to see it on the big screen. so i've stopped caring - it's amazing the kind of
inner-peace i'm achieving from spending all day in uniform. yes, that's a
spurious relation, but i don't care :P
plans for the weekend: sleep, read, work. it's looking like the work will be
fun, and maybe even get me some cash.
it's good to be me. ooh - almost forgot: i've been given an AWESOME army
jacket, far better than the standard-issue, and next week gets me pants that
are one size too big, and a big enough belt to make it *just* fit. it's time to
stop looking like a rookie!
Thursday,
December 09, 2004 7:34 PM
wow
- that's the best sleep i've had in AGES. i slept over in herzliyah so that i
could work on this xml <-> sql project, and the work's alright, and it's
far better than the army hostel... this week's news: our door's lock has lost
its semi-functional status, so now nobody needs to even try to open
it... we've had lots of visitors.
it looks like getting my own studio is a possibility - and i'm really enjoying
my work each day.
^_^
Tuesday,
December 07, 2004 7:07 AM
translation: i'm - simply - happy ^_^
i haven't felt this good in years, at least since the party days. and now it's
happiness from satisfaction with life, myself, and almost everything.
it's not that everything's perfect - far from it - but since i've been in the
army my attitude's received the biggest pickup. i feel good about the work i'm
doing, i have all my confidence back. i feel like i'm living again, a feeling i
haven't had since the turn of the millenium.
i had this absolutely incredible revelation this last week: i've been saying
for years that the difference between men and women in general is the
same as the difference between any two men or women: we've just all been
brought up to believe in the roles society has assigned to us.
what's changed? i've finally learned to apply my theory to the task of
approaching an attractive woman. and it works! all i've been doing is imagining
myself in her position, thinking of how i'd feel if it was a girl, either
attractive or not, approaching me in the same manner. granted, it takes a bit
of confidence, and a certain amount of ego, but hell - it works! and it's made
me relax a lot in general.
i am totally satisfied with my current station in my grand vision of the
future. it's been a rough ride, but i'm on track and things are going well. the
only thing i don't have time for is complainers, whiners, moaning, and the
terminally stupid. and i'm not even getting impatient - i'm finding myself more
and more amused, and less and less frustrated, the more i get in touch with who
i am and what i'm doing.
on a slightly different note:
due to a bit of influence from orson scott card, whose speaker for
the dead is way better than i anticipated, coupled with my idea of living
underground as protection from the general dangers of the universe, and
inspired by a two second clip from the national geographic channel of a
submarine, i have come up with a grand scheme.
we have PLENTY of space to colonize in our oceans. there have been plenty of
ideas along these lines, but this one is mine. imagine an enormous titanium
sphere, containing an inner sphere, much like those weighted balls we used to
play with as kids, that seem to "slide" along the ground. there's no
reason that we couldn't set up a biosphere (heh - "sphere") within,
and there are plenty of methods to communicate with the outside world.
i think my idea totally r0xx0rs.
i think i've missed AvP on the big screen. that's a bit crap. oh, and
last night i totally wiped out the contents of the c drive on my cousins' pc.
but, i did get everything back up and running, very quickly, and it's all
better than before. and i've made better back-ups. i suck, but i rule!
Saturday,
December 04, 2004 8:35 PM
i
have absolutely no idea where to begin, nor where to end this blog. i'm not
even sure that i remember even HALF of the past two weeks.
last week:
sunday: visited her parents and grandparents, and worked for an hour
wednesday: left for eilat.
eilat trip till sat. night: simply awesome, and we have incredible photos to
prove it. i just had fun for 4 days, met the girl of my dreams (although she
lives in eilat. swak.), and generally enjoyed myself in every which way.
this week:
sunday: looked at an apartment, and had a first date with a rather cute girl
tuesday: our first day of real work since i joined - we were all on the base
till midnight. also, my birthday: to celebrate i ate 10 "krembo's"
(sweetie pie's, but the biscuit's stale) in 10 minutes, and we have a
hysterical video of me stuffing my face.
today: was under the most pressure coding i've been since my yellow pages
disaster (sometime back in the year 2001), didn't manage to finish, but
everything's alright... i've proved to my team that i know what i'm doing.
in general, all i can say is that the army totally suits me - i don't think
i've been this happy consistently in my life!
Thursday,
December 02, 2004 7:07 PM
but
- should i be? i'm "on my way to bed", but i still have plenty of
KoLing to do, and i still have to pack for the next two weeks - incl. a trip to
eilat.
where do i begin?
i slept a lot today. in the evening we went out to a restaurant, where the food
was great, and the coffee was really hot.
how hot was the coffee? you may well ask.
it was so hot, that when i spilled it on my slightly-older-cousin's-husband-who-i've-met-for-the-first-time,
he actually JUMPED back and FELL onto his wife, with the most surreal fright i
have ever seen. go me.
so that was the heart-stopping scene, everything else was quite bland. good
night.
Saturday,
November 20, 2004 11:16 PM
right.
the week started off unpleasantly - the army hostel didn't have any sheets or
blankets, and it was COLD. although i borrowed a sheet from a neighbour, i
shivered and froze the entire night. the following two days i was absolutely
exhausted, and didn't get much studying done - plus i had to read a lot in
hebrew, and that's difficult enough for me as it is.
i finally caught up on tuesday night, with 11 hours of sleep.
damn.
wednesday night was fun - we went to our dba's apartment, and watched the
football match between
one of the guys in our department also needs to move out of the hostels, so
we've begun searching for an apartment together. hopefully it won't take too
much longer.
i had a job interview yesterday, which went kind-of-okay, and afterwards met up
with the dog in tel aviv. we had coffee with a friend of his, and he convinced
me to go along to mike's place, a really crappy bar.
where i ran into a friend of mine (my first crush (mfc)) that i haven't seen in
years, who i was meant to meet up with when i was in
this morning i woke up early (in spite of playing rummy-kub at 3am on my way
home), around 8.30, showered, packed up, and got on my way. i had coffee with
an old friend in the mall, and met a guy who used to be friends with her
father, in one of those jewish-geography/it's-a-small-world things.
i met up with mfc, and we went to tel aviv, to get the bus to afula.
don't ask.
we went separate ways, and met up again in afula, where we chilled for a bit
before i came back to the kibbutz.
oh, and i did some organizing during the week, and i'm now officially living in
tel aviv. yeah :)
Friday,
November 19, 2004 4:45 PM
wow
- another week. zoomed passed, without collecting 200.
DAMN.
on sunday they moved me to the beachfront in tel aviv. now, compared to petach
tikva, anything's alright, but this is seriously nice.
two new guys in our unit - it's weird, but i've only been there a week and i
feel the same about these two as the other guys do. one of them's a bit of a
problem, we'll see how that pans out. but generally, it's been an interesting
(learned a lot of oracle stuff) and fun (played serious soccer and had a
barbeque) week.
i've received a detailed report on this beit abir martial arts school
from the wolf, and it's keeps sounding better and better. i gotta try this,
hopefully sunday evening i'll get a chance.
i'm still on the lookout for a nice girl... *juts out lower lip*
Friday,
November 12, 2004 3:45 PM
comments:
Dex
posted:
Sounds
like your having yourself some fun at least, better then me.....
Sitting in the middle of a concrete jungle with the closest ocean looking like
you might grow another arm if you go into it is not really the ideal
environment if I had to say so myself.
one week later...
i've now been a real, working soldier for a week. and it's been one of those
weeks that just flew past.
not yet a dull moment. the guys i'm working with are great, and the work so
far, and for the foreseeable next two months, is interesting and not too
difficult.
i'm still in shock over how much hebrew i've learned in a single week.
the living conditions have been a bit of a bitch, as the hostel i've finally
ended up at is over half an hour away from the base, which wouldn't be too much
of a problem if they had a laundry service, and maybe food somewhere.
the firing range was, umm, embarrassing. it's the first time i've used an uzi,
and i misunderstood how the safety works, and had mine set to automatic.
WHOOPS.
never mind. there are less good-looking girls on the base than i thought, but
there's not much i can do about that. i'm still stuck on this girl i met last
thursday, but it's a different base :(
*SIGH*
and these are the big issues in life. i can't say that i'm unhappy. i'm fscking
ECSTATIC! i can't believe i've been this lucky
^_^
right, now to continue enjoying my weekend.
Friday,
November 05, 2004 8:39 AM
yep,
that's right. i spent this morning shaving my beret. i slept rather a lot, too,
and generally arsed around the day, occasionally reading harry potter, and
doing the family supper thing.
oh - learned about a new martial art school in tel aviv, the wolf and i are
going to go check it out on wednesday.
oh, yeah, and i learned a bit of PL/SQL for sunday. not too complicated.
i just finished getting my bum handed to me on a plate in chess. my brain hurts
a little.
Friday,
October 29, 2004 11:46 PM
okay
- long, long day.
yesterday, after i got to karnaf's place, i slept and slept (and watched
some movies) and slept until 6.15... i made it out of the apartment
just in time, but was almost at the base before realizing that i'd
forgotten all my important documents.
brilliant.
fortunately, i didn't need it at the induction base - same guys from
yesterday, sorted me out in 2 seconds. see what a personal call can
do?
i got sent to the main base in tel aviv, but took a little longer than
i should have as i made the detour to pick up my things. which i
definitely, definitely needed. i love making good calls.
the rest of the day would have been a lot of fun, if i hadn't been
carrying my kit-bag, and if it hadn't been so hot and icky, and if i
hadn't been under time pressure.
i couldn't stop sweating, which increased my general discomfort.
t'wasn't lovely at all.
anyway, the day began with an interview, where the guy was kind enough
to speak in english for most of it. nice guy, heads the unit that MY
unit is a branch of. i got into the unit!
that's actually the main news for the day. the rest of the afternoon
was what they call "form hiking", where you go from office to office
trying to get the right forms filled out. of interest:
the personal-situation commander (what she's going to be) discovered
that the academic corps FORGOT to inform the system that i'd returned
to service.
excellent.
the medical offices are outside the base, quite far away. i walked all
the way there, got a signature, and walked all the way back.
only to get sent all the way back to get the second signature.
DOH!
i completed everything at 16.10, and was promptly instructed to be on
the base in ramat gan at 16.00.
yeah, right.
so, i did my best, and got there at 16.55, just before my commander
(no more "potential") left, and he introduced me to some of the guys,
showed me my desk and pc, and explained what sunday will be like.
sunday will be exactly like today, only on a different base.
also, my kit-bag has been banned from the base (it's considered
offensive), and i've been instructed to come to the base on sunday
with my beret properly prepared (it's new): so i'm now sitting and
shaving it with a disposable razor, and tomorrow i'll find a suitable
container to soak it in.
i finally taught myself to do the laces on the boots properly, so i'm
rather proud, and at some point today i got back into soldier-mode, so
i reckon i'm going to be okay.
now, i get a weekend!
i walked in to my cousins' place, and was told i looked "cute".
NOBODY gets pictures,
that's the third person to make that comment. my feelings are hurt.
Thursday,
October 28, 2004 11:10 PM
work
last night was HORRIBLE. we had technical difficulties, and difficult clients.
and when it wasn't going crazy, i was tired and bored.
i got to bed at four am, and woke up at 6.15, shaved, showered, packed and
stressed off to get the bus. i was stressing because i forgot to plan my route.
a cousin of mine always says the army mentality is "hurry up and
wait". i made it there by 8am, and then waited. after about half an hour,
they sent us off to get new uniforms, and this took until around 10-10.30...
i'd forgotten little things like how to lace up my boots, etc., but i do now
have a uniform that fits.
after another little wait, we got taken to the assignments office. i waited
there from 11am till 3.30pm, with a short break for lunch.
i'm not kidding.
apparently this is normal.
at the end of the wait, i received papers that told me to go to
"tzrifin" base (where she's doing her basics) in the morning,
so that they could send me back here to the ramat gan base.
brilliant.
i made my way home, finally not paying for public transport, and was in almost
constant communication with my soon-to-be commander. i have never in my life
heard ANYONE speak so fast, and it was all in high-level hebrew. i'm having to
make do with understanding the concepts of what he's trying to say, even if
word-for-word i'm clueless.
anyway, he's managed to sort out that tomorrow morning i'll go back to the same
base, and he'll pick me up from there.
which is nice.
i had a shower, and then crashed - a relative called while i was sleeping, i
shouldn't have answered. i was totally not in any state to talk to human beings
at the time.
it's amazing how much difference two hours of sleep can make.
and i have strange tan lines because i kept falling asleep in odd places.
so that's my news - i'm happy to be in the army, but it's definitely going to
take some getting used to. the reason i'm not working tonight is that a) i'm
too tired and b) karnaf just reminded me that it's illegal without
authorization.
they'll just have to suffer a man short.
i'm probably going back to bed now, i'm still lacking sleep from about 3 days
now.
Wednesday,
October 27, 2004 8:11 PM
i
got a ride back to karnaf's, where i had a shower and CRASHED. i got up a few
hours later, maybe 5, and fscked off to herzliyah, where i ran around getting
signatures. i only ran into one spot of trouble, and that's cause this new
employee is a totally bitch, just looking to piss people off.
got that sorted out eventually.
i stopped by some relatives for lunch, which was really nice, and made it back
to karnaf's in time to put on shoes and get my ass to work, where i've been
"actually working" ever since.
*sigh*
i'm so tired. so, so tired.
Tuesday,
October 26, 2004 10:53 PM
well,
technically, it's the early morning of the 26th of october. i'm sitting here at
work, listening to hiphop while waiting for the abuse of stupid americans. i'm
kinda tired, but still kinda wired, for which a suitable explanation ensues.
the 24th (not yesterday. the day before. approximately):
t'was a day for watching loads of telly. and ready good ol' 'arry potter. a
cousin and i went through to afula for a bit, missioning unsuccessfully for
decent chocolate.
oh, and i ate blue blueberry muffins all day. was a pretty good day, i guess.
in the evening, i called the army to find out what my assignment was, only to
discover that nobody was assigned. i explained my situation, again, only
this time to a male. i am not sexist, but this is the first person who's had
the good grace to apologize for them taking so long, and promised me i'd get a
call the following day.
false hope or not, i didn't care. i got excited.
yesterday:
around midnight, i went to take out the trash. suddenly got hit by a spark of
inspiration - the paved parking lot is ideal for doing taekwondo forms. so i
did. i had a good shower afterwards, and slept really badly afterwards.
after waking up, i began sorting through all my army gear, which was amusing. i
packed all my things, had lunch with the cousins, and then we all went to
afula, from where i was planning to go to work.
coffee: the really cute waitress dropped (in slow-motion, we all got the
effect) my cappuccino, immediately after which i received *THE* phone call. i
start my army service on wednesday morning!!
SO typical, it's murphy: it's all because i came back to work.
anyway, i was so excited, that i bounced all the way to my cousin's office, to
tell her the news. i'd left the girls behind, they were just behind me, and i
said "oh, good, you're sitting down.", as we'd laughed earlier that
she'd fall off her chair if the army called me back.
she almost had a heart-attack. she went into shock, and it was only then that i
realized that out of context, me arriving without the girls, and making a
comment about remaining seated, was completely inappropriate. i guess i was
just a little too excited for my own good.
anyways, that got sorted out eventually, and the whole ride home i was bouncing
up and down, so excited that i would've screamed if it hadn't been for the
company.
i got back to the kibbutz, packed my gear into my kit bag, said goodbye to
everyone, and did the bus thing. it's been a while since i lugged the bag
around - that thing by f@$%!ing HEAVY.
oh, and got two calls on the way -
1) from the university. my degree is more or less closed, i just have to run
through tomorrow (today?) to a couple of offices on campus, and finalize
things.
2) my mom, who's almost as excited as i am.
got to work, still excited, to tell the boss "thanks for hiring me back,
gotta go"... i can't not find the whole thing funny. now i've got to find
people to replace me :P
work's been alright, although a bit on the boring side. but my news r0xx0rs SO
much, it's just amazes me. and i've gotten in touch with all sorts of
interesting people, friends i ain't been able to get hold of for a while.
t'was a good evening. some of the calls this morning have been a bit shitty,
but i now have no reason to care. whatsoever.
1:13 AM
i've
just been informed that instead of bringing my army service forward, like they
promised... those bastards moved it back ANOTHER day.
FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK
DAMMIT.
so ja, just gonna take it easy for a day, then find out what the hell's going
on.
Sunday,
October 24, 2004 12:31 PM
it's
true. it can be bad for you.
after my unusual wake-up, i joined the family for a trip up north, to the
enormous druze village of daliyat-al-karmel. very pretty, and we had a rather
nice time. great lunch.
when we got back, we did the whole farm-tour-thing, which was great, and then
had a huge braai, all really good food. i've spent the last hour or so online,
and now it's time to get to bed. i've found out that the army's called me up,
so i have to find out what for in the morning, but i'm not sure if i'm going to
come back here tomorrow evening...
12:15 AM
OMFG.
a large group of CLAWcreatures weren eating around a large dining-room table.
during the dinner, i remembered a dessert-bowl of food i'd placed
"temporarily" in a corner the last time we'd been there, and
scrabbled through some boxes on the side of the room, and found it sitting
untouched on the floor.
the bowl was still warm.
fascinated, i stared at the contents of the bowl, which warped and wobbled, and
suddenly began shrinking, as if something at the bottom was sucking it all up
really quickly.
it had, actually, sucked itself up, and was, in fact, a tiny cthuloid
gnocchi-beast. it burped a tiny burp, and then threw up everything it had just
consumed - only it threw up a little more than that, so the bowl was dripping
with overflow.
it then proceeded to suck it all up again.
this happened a few times, each time dribbling a bit out of the bowl, and we
were all fascinated and intrigued: a REAL cthuloid gnocchi-beast!
during a spew-period, i attempted to move the bowl to a placemat, but spilled
some of the gushing, semi-transparent, slimy liquid. one last, gigantic suck,
and a tiny gibletish thing was all that remained.
the gnocchi-beast was gone.
*later*
we were all watching through some form of portal, as the caretaker of a large,
rather bouncy and energetic cthuloid creature explained that the date-aid had
been removed. a crucial part of it must have been in the "soup" that
slopped over, and the tiny gibletish thing was undoubtedly its remains. without
the date-aid, the cthuloid could not be combined with a partner, and so had
separated out, thankfully, into another dimension. i don't know what happened
to the gnocchi.
this was the dream i woke up to this morning. needless to say, i *bounded* out
of bed to write it down before it disappeared!
yesterday:
i got up fairly early, and i hadn't really slept, so i wasn't feeling too good.
we went to afula, had some breakfast and coffee, did a little shopping, walked
around, and then came back to the kibbutz.
where i passed out. after my nap, i either watched tv, or read a bit of the
fourth harry potter book, or talked with the cousins.
aside from doing the communal supper thing, that was pretty much my day. in the
evening, in a flash of giant stupidity, i completely destroyed my cousins'
computer - i not only managed to repair it, but improved the installation as
well.
and then ghosted the sucker. oh yeah, i felt pretty good when i got to bed,
finally, at 2am...
Saturday,
October 23, 2004 10:30 AM
yesterday:
work was actually quite fun: i got sammy interested in kingdom of loathing,
and got to talk on irc again! i love working there.
i slept at sammy's, and during the afternoon got him completely addicted to
counterstrike. i'm a selfish, bad person. but proud of it, too.
in the late afternoon, i went through to visit a friend in herzliyah, and then
went with SxS and a friend for drinks and snacks at medzzo, a really
uppity restaurant in the industrial area.
late night caught us playing texas holden, a really cool variation on poker. i
did REALLY well at the beginning, but ultimately got left with nothing. oh
well, it's my first time.
today:
i slept really badly, and woke up early to go sort out social security. the
security by the door really pissed me off, as they confiscated my bag due to a
pair of nailclippers. i almost lost my rag.
sorting out SS wasn't too rough - i paid it off at the bank. i had a haircut,
and then met up with an old associate for steaks and dealing: seems i might be
getting a salary for a bit... db project, sounds interesting enough. now i just
gotta guarantee that i get paid.
he dropped me off at the bus station, and i took the buses to the kibbutz,
where i met a second cousin for the first time. so we've all been chatting, and
arbing, and eating, and by now it's way past time to be showering, as the
haircut's left me all itchy.
w00t! i have clean clothes now!
Thursday,
October 21, 2004 8:47 PM
i
woke up this morning, and watching the rocky horror picture show. for
the first time. and it was quite fun :) prolly not as good as the real thing,
but i still enjoyed it.
i spent the day reading through the looking glass, which was very
different from how i remembered it. and i see now where the odd bits from the
disney movie came from.
i took a long walk to work, and started work with an absolutely BRILLIANT order
of curry noodles. with chutney. god bless the thai.
right, working now. or something. $$$
Tuesday,
October 19, 2004 8:01 PM
right.
i felt much better when i went to bed last night, and much better when i woke
up. i felt much better when yogi dropped me off at the bus stop, and much
better as i had a humungous breakfast with karnaf. i felt incredible as i
walked around the city, trying to locate the central office of the kibbutzim,
and got the phone number of the one person in the country who can actually help
me.
and it turns out he's the same person who helped me before, to get onto the
current kibbutz in the first place - now i just hope he won't have any problem
moving me to the centre of the country.
i felt good as i made my way to my old workplace, and felt amazing as they told
me that not only did they not mind rehiring me until i go into active duty, but
that they want me to start immediately. and they'll deal with my social
security.
the 3.5 hours of work i did today (retraining) covers my transport costs for
the week, and tomorrow night i'm working an 8 hour shift.
AH-YEAH!
i missed the last bus back to afula, which was quite upsetting, but karnaf has
been good enough to let me stay here again. after an emergency shower, we sat
down to watch clerks. it's just as good the second time around...
perhaps better.
oh - and a little afterthought: my previous ex-girlfriend actually called me
back today, and we had a quick 10-minute chat. it's good to have at least a
clue about what's been happening with her, even if the updates weren't all
good.
i feel good about how today went. i feel very, very good about it.
Monday,
October 18, 2004 11:08 PM
i've
just discovered my new bible. aren't i fickle? it's at
this place, over here. i'm a link. click me!
i've decided it's alright for me to become a "normal" human being
now. me, just more so. *evil giggle*
i managed to do sweet bugger-all for the rest of the day. i been online, i
watched some tv (best fear factor ever - so many things that i wanna
try!), and had long arguments with yogi and his girlfriend about moving into
yogi's parents' place for a few weeks. maybe i will.
right, back to my big self-realization.
1:12 AM
right.
i'm feeling pretty good - i've been introduced to something called
"gat", and leaf that makes you happy when you chew it. nice one.
i literally slept the whole of yesterday. i woke up around 8/9pm, and had a
pizza for breakfast. sometime after midnight SxS took me through to yogi's,
where we talked until 4am before crashing.
this morning, yogi's girlfriend gave me a ride to campus, where i finally
dropped off the scotch and gifts i've been luggin around, saw some people, and
had breakfast.
i then visited some friends in my old area, and had coffee and a cigarette
(i've been smoking quite a bit in the last while, and i just don't care). yogi
picked me up, and we went to see the kibbutz in herzliyah. turns out they're
fully booked, and so is another kibbutz i tried.
oh well.
i'll just have to wait.
some more.
i joined yogi for some shopping, had some of this "gat" (which i'm
most satisfied with), and then returned to his place. i've been introducing him
to gmail, which has been quite entertaining, and am now about to spend a few
hours assing around, maybe watching some telly. go me!
Sunday,
October 17, 2004 7:19 PM
harsh. i feel numb, and alone. yet,
strangely comfortable, familiar with that feeling.
last night i went to her grandfather's surprise birthday party, and it
was the first time i've been at her place since i've been back. her new
boyfriend was there, and what really got me started on this thought process was
the fact that he's allowed to sleep over, whereas i had to avoid her place
altogether.
needless to say, i really am jealous.
her father seems to be back to normal with me, which i guess means that he's
realized that we're not getting married anytime soon. or that he's growing up.
whichever.
i don't care.
i've been okay with the idea of us not going out since we broke up, but tonight
i really felt single for the first time in years.
it also dawned on me that although i may have dealt with all my issues apropos
my father dying, i never really dealt with all the other shit surrounding it,
like seeing my younger sister in a bad way, and the family drama that occurred
during the week after the funeral.
all in all, i've got a lot of dealing to do.
back to the more mundane:
early yesterday afternoon, i got on the bus from ra'anana to afula. about 10
minutes into the bus ride, her mom called to invite me to the birthday
party.
now, i don't really mind that she forgot to invite me before that, but her
timing was aweful. i got to the kibbutz, did some frantic packing, had to
search through their storage facility-thingy to find my jeans, and then...
i got the times all wrong from the bus-company's website, so i didn't think i
had enough time to wait for the bus to afula from the kibbutz. i unsuccessfully
tried to hitchhike, but was desperate enough to take a cab.
now, the cab fair is 5 times the price of the bus fare, and i'd already spent a
fair amount on travelling for the day. not only that, but the taxi driver had
to make a detour to go pick something, so i was unimpressed and in a huge
hurry.
we started talking, and i explained my homeless situation to the taxi driver.
he then explained that the solution is obvious: all i need to do is find a girl
who'll move into an apartment with me, thereby reducing all my costs.
yeah, fucking right.
so i explain to him that that's a lot easier said than done, meaning that it's
difficult to find a suitable girl, who's happy enough with you, etc.,
but he misunderstood and tried to set me up with some girl he either knows / is
related to.
my god.
no way.
so i politely attempt to explain to him that that kind of setting up is just not
a part of my culture, so sorry.
the rest of the drive was silent.
it turned out that the bus would've been on time >@, but whatever. i passed
out on the bus, and got off in the industrial area of herzliya.
great, but noone could come and pick me up. so after some frantic organizing, i
walked through to a friend's place, and she picked me up from there.
after dinner, during which i successfully defended my fingers at the buffet (at
the cost of eating decently), i got dropped off at said friend's place again,
and a group of us went for a walk and a sit-down in a park.
t'was nice.
aside from the introspection.
we walked back, ate quite a bit (i had some catching up to do), and i'm now at
ru55's, where i'm about to crash.
right, it's now back to me feeling sorry for myself. or, at least, adjusting to
the old feelings.
Saturday,
October 16, 2004 4:10 AM
we
just got back, at 2.30am, from a braai 'n chill, to discover that SxS is rather
unSxSful when it comes to keeping pet fish... his goldfish lasted about 28
hours before going belly up.
*sigh*
Friday,
October 15, 2004 2:27 AM
boy,
have i been feeling like crap. the whole day.
i slept quite a bit, but got to the point where i just couldn't sleep anymore.
i spent the day disorientated, dazed, and confused.
and slow.
very, very slow.
i had a nap in the evening, after which i felt much better, and i'm really
lucky that i remembered to phone her mom for her birthday. i *HATE*
speaking on phones, but i managed to pull through, and it's alright now.
*phew*
ummm, after wearing these overalls for a couple of days, i've finally decided
that i've found my style. now i just gotta organize myself a few more pairs
(pairs?)... they gotta be at least 2 sizes too big for me, have a drawstring or
backpack-type belt, and tons o' pockets, and then i'll have all the clothing i
could wish for ^_^
and that's about all the intelligence that's coming out of me today.
Thursday,
October 14, 2004 8:34 PM
yes.
i went all the way to the base, getting severely screwed over by a bus driver
on the way, to get told a simple line that could have saved much aggravation
yesterday if it had only been said ON THE GODDAMN PHONE.
2 seconds after walking in, i then had to walk back out and catch a bus back to
where i'd started my morning.
karnaf and i had breakfast on dizengoff, which was rather nice, and after a
too-quick 10 minute nap, i was off to the campus in herzliyah.
i hate travelling.
a few of us made a presentation to potential south african / australian
students, which was alright, and visited some friends.
turns out that the entire project that i've been working on during my holiday
was flawed from the start, and they've built a completely new system from
scratch, which totally makes my work worthless.
great.
i've been chilling with SxS, we've been to the airport and back, and now i'm
trying to get my paws on some food.
i say it's been an orange evening, 'cause i been wearing my overalls in public
again. i *LIKE* my overalls.
Wednesday,
October 13, 2004 10:18 PM
and
it is. it really is.
yesterday:
i got up stupid-early (around 6.30am), got my blades, packed in a hurry, had a
3-minute shower, and got a ride to afula, from where i took a bus to herzliyah.
and then WALKED. i walked a long, long way. s'what happens when you get off at
the wrong stop, in the middle of nowhere.
i spent the rest of the morning on campus, sorted some things out *1,
and then she came to fetch me, and we went to the mall. from there we
went to her grandparents, for a really nice lunch.
after that i went to SxS's, and from there to our friend in pituach's, for an
awesome chicken salad feast.
and then we went to the alumni "do" at the university. was quite
pretentious, but we got some spiffy promo things (a glass chess set, and an
organizer incl.).
i left early, and bladed HARD to get to the bus-stop. after being dropped off
in tel-aviv i bladed HARD to get to karnaf's place. only to find out that i
wasn't late.
*sigh*
i put on my bright orange primi piatti overalls, and joined the group.
the group's alright, nothing special. the route sucks ASS. they can fuck
right off, i'm not doing that again.
not that i completed it in the first place. too of us got completely friggin'
lost, and had to take a taxi back to tel-aviv at 1am. 'cause we'd bladed to the
next friggin' city. that sucked.
not to mention that it's the first time i've bladed in forever. i got a lot of
exercise, but i also got blisters on my feet, and i made it back to karnaf's
just before they started to get serious on me.
today:
i just got up, i'm drinkin' ma' coffee, and then i'm off to the base. 'cause i
TRIED to call them yesterday. i can't go in my overalls, 'cause they don't have
no pockets.
*1: i called the army yesterday. each person i spoke to tried to
convince me that i was talking to the wrong person, so i got switched several
times. in one of the conversations, i spent AGES trying to explain my situation
to this one girl. eventually, she gave up, and asked me for my personal number,
which i promptly gave her. she then goes "oh! it's --insert my name
here--! how are you? why didn't you tell me it was you?", has a quick
laugh with whoever was with her, and then puts me through to someone else
entirely, who couldn't help me at all.
8:03 AM
i
gotta be up in 6 hours, so i can go BACK to herzliya.
rediculous.
i completely wasted yet another day. got up at 12, farted around for five
hours, and then SxS dropped me off at the bus-stop.
i've just watched the second harry potter movie: not NEARLY as good as the
book. some parts were alright, but they skipped important bits, and included
nonsense. why, oh WHY, do i expect more??
g'nite.
Tuesday,
October 12, 2004 1:01 AM
we
just watched hellboy. i fell asleep almost from the start.
not good.
went bowling earlier. i sucked the big one.
*yawn*. it's totally bedtime.
Monday,
October 11, 2004 3:02 AM
wow.
i been here almost three weeks. crazy, man... crazy.
before i forget, here is a link to translated hunter x hunter
manga.
my favourite.
last night i came to karnaf's place. we watched mivtzah savtah
(operation grandmother) before crashing. i slept rather well, and have spent
the entire day so far (i'm still waking up early from the past week) catching
up on webcomics, and listening to good trance. simultaneously, even.
in a bit i'm probably off to herzliya. or ra'anana. or wherever. what sucks is
that i'm gonna have to go back up north at some stage, and i'm too busy being
bored down here :(
Sunday,
October 10, 2004 3:33 PM
i've
been napping all afternoon - i'm completely drained, but feeling good
nonetheless.
all good things must come to an end: in about half an hour or so, i'm gonna
have to leave this apartment, and the cheshire cat :( *sniff* *sob*
i read more harry potter this morning, then slept until the cat got to me,
showered, and spent the day finishing the 3rd book. what a great
book! i can't wait to see the movies, if only to satisfy my curiosity as to how
close to the books they are.
and that about sums up the value of my day. as my cousin so succinctly put it
(we were discussing our incapacity to enjoy holidays): "i'm a bum!".
Saturday,
October 09, 2004 6:03 PM
alright.
here goes. i spent a lot of the evening reading the third harry potter book. i
found out that j. k. rowling's not just some housewife who happened to write
some good stuff, but that she's an academic and has actually put a lot of work
into the series. apparently it's targeted for adults, which isn't too
surprising. i have to say that i've been completely drawn in ^_^
SxS and co. came to the rescue. we went out to a club called self, which
is where we couldn't get in on halloween owing to my costume (and the fact that
israeli's don't celebrate all-hallow's eve).
the dance music sucked, but the hip-hop was cool, and i had great fun. so many
stunning girls, and i had no idea whatsoever of how to initiate a conversation.
my lack of confidence is mostly due to the fact that you can't hear a damn
thing in clubs, and my hebrew's not too good either... i lose no matter what.
so i just danced with and eyeballed the girls of interest, until home time.
actually, at one point there were so many people that it became more of a
moshpit, but i held my ground until things cooled off a bit. at least, our
section cooled off a bit :)
but DAMN, them girls was FINE.
i got back home to a cat that was absolutely PINING for me! it's so cute!
almost, but not quite, makes up for me coming home alone.
right, it's a toss-up between more harry potter, and a shower and bed. hmmm...
3:25 AM
well,
my friend finally called me, to let me know that they're alright. took bloody
long enough, too.
umm, i went to training this afternoon:
a) i really don't have as much energy as i'd like, i'm totally unfit
b) nothing's changed. at all. i'm just severely disappointed
i came home, a bit morbid (i still am), and had a shower, then a nap. which i'm
feeling more-or-less in the middle of, but i'll read a bit before resuming.
Friday,
October 08, 2004 7:01 PM
i
just read about the bombing in taba, and that's pretty fucked up. my friend and
his girlfriend (who i'm housesitting for) are somewhere in sinai, so it's not
only fucked up, but a bit close to home.
yesterday and today:
been bored. done very little, aside from reading harry potter, listening to
streaming trance, and taking the occasional walk. the cat woke me up this
morning by pawing my nose, as if it were an "on" button.
it worked, dammit.
i think that cat knows something.
i just came back from shopping. on a friday. i should know better.
i'm sure the old people make everything difficult on purpose.
12:01 PM
i
just finished watching shaun of the dead. good movie.
it's officially holiday time, and it feels like everything's come to a complete
standstill. i have the urge to do absolutely nothing.
today went better after i managed to get the sleep out of my eyes. i cleaned
the kitty litter, which wasn't nearly as bad as i expected, and did some basic
shopping. my mother would be ashamed if she knew what i bought, but nevermind.
i walked a good deal again, had a cup of coffee at azrieli center, and then SxS
and i played some pool at the lincoln. and i actually won, for the first time
in ages... i wish i could say it was due to me improving...
i had a good nap this afternoon, and the cat obviously didn't notice :)
here's to my boring holiday. *bleargh*
Wednesday,
October 06, 2004 10:50 PM
oh
god. help me please.
i was woken at 4am, or something, with a face full of fur. only problem is that
this pussy mews LOUD. and then, not only did it take me forever to get back to
sleep, but the cat gets cranky and noisy at 7am PRECISELY - because he's run
out of food.
and i haven't exactly gotten quality sleep... i'm allergic to cats so my nose
is partially blocked.
and i thought my headache was bad when i went to bed...
i think the cat, gorgeous as he is, has it in for me. and i haven't yet had the
pleasure of cleaning the kitty litter.
8:58 AM
oh
wow - hectic day!
1) somehow managed to get up early, unloaded / loaded the dishwasher, shaved,
showered, picked up my laundry, packed, and left
2) sorted myself out with cash and a shuwarma in afula
3) arrived in herzliya's industrial area, waited half an hour for her to
arrive, had coffee, walked around, and got dropped off at the train station
4) took the train to tel aviv, got picked up by karnaf, and was introduced to
the apartment, it's owner, and the cheshire cat
nice bloody apartment. i can most certainly deal with staying here for a few
days. the cat's diabetic, so it consumes a lot = it produces a lot.
but that's alright.
i decided to walk, so i could learn a bit of the area, and the bus routes. i
walked all the way to azrieli centre, arbed and wombled around there, then
walked to kikar rabin.
that's quite a lot of exercise.
i bussed back here, with no problem, and have just received a call from an old
friend. i would have met up with her tomorrow, but we realized that it's
impossible for me to get back here to look after the cat, so we'll just have to
wait...
right, i'm gonna nap a little, then i guess i'm off to yogi's place.
Tuesday,
October 05, 2004 10:50 PM
we
justed watched jackass: the movie. some of it was hysterical (pandas,
golf), a lot of it was just tasteless and horrible. still, haven't laughed like
that in a long time...
Monday,
October 04, 2004 10:31 PM
wow.
i have got to learn to just accept people for the way they are. it's not
my business to teach anyone how to behave. other than my own children, of
course.
the other big realization for the day is that the story of my life is in the
process of unfolding, and i have to stop living only for the future. everything
i've been doing has been for the current phase, and i've got a long way to go
for the next one. my unfortunate news for the day is that apparently there's
nothing i can do about my army service till it's begun... and the way i was
spoken to today, i get the feeling that my position in this unit isn't as
secure as i thought.
so, basically, it's all just wait-and-see. so i may as well do that. and i
really do have to learn to just relax, and enjoy myself. i actually do
have time.
in case it's not readily apparent, i did practically nothing today.
7:40 PM
well.
well, well, well.
well.
i say, "well!".
i managed to go to sleep after posting my last post, and this is a basic
summary of what i dreamed:
we were shooting some sci-fi movie, us being lookalikes for the actual cast.
the movie ends with my character's girlfriend crashing in to the rescue. or
something.
we took the train back. the train passed through private tracks, owned by the
university i've just finished attending. michael j. fox was working as the
conductor, and we had to give him cash for the ticket. angel (our CLAW one)
goes absolutely dotty over him, while i try to act all nonchalant. she climbs
into a tiny cupboard / compartment thingy at the front of the train, from where
she proceeds to make train announcements (interesting acoustics).
i must be alright :)
i woke up to a cup of coffee, and got a ride into afula. i caught the bus at
8am, and arrived on the base just before 10am. it's ALWAYS better to do these
things in person - i think the girl i spoke to understood me, and it appears
that things should go smoother now if i just chill and wait for a response.
i got in touch with an old flame, without having to circuitously get to her
through her parents... but i'll have to wait and see if she actually wants to
get in touch with me.
*sigh*
i had a great coffee / breakfast with karnaf, who then extremely considerately
gave me a ride all the way to hadera. i would have stopped in herzliya, but i
was wearing my i've come for your daughter shirt, and her parents
and grandparents would NOT be okay with it.
*silly chortle*
the bus back sucked, as it was packed and i had to stand. by the time i got
back to the kibbutz, i was wasted, and i totally crashed. i woke up in the
evening, in time to catch most of the fellowship of the ring, supper,
and rush hour. now that this computer's been re-installed, it's working
alright, but i can't wait till tuesday - gonna be housesitting, and will have
access to a REAL pc. w00t!
right, more tv, then bedtime.
yup, definitely bedtime.
Sunday,
October 03, 2004 11:54 PM
great
- i have to be up at 7am, so OBVIOUSLY i can't get to sleep. i've been tossing
and turning, trying to remember the hebrew word for squirrel.
i hate myself sometimes.
yesterday evening my cousin's brother took us out for coffee, which was nice,
and after getting back, i whiled away the time reading, watching tv, and going
for a long walk.
good on me, eh?
dammit, i feel like crap. and by that, i mean that i don't feel so good.
3:46 AM
yesterday:
i didn't sleep so well. went to bed around 6am-ish, woke up a couple of hours
later. i gave the dog's cousin a good lesson in tekken, although he really
wasn't bad, and had a decent breakfast while re-watching the first spiderman.
there was a lot of army conversation / jealous argument going around, and i
found it rather interesting / amusing.
i took a bus to afula, and from there back to the kibbutz. dinner last night
was quite pleasant, and we watched gorgeous in the evening, which was
quite entertaining, and contained some of jackie chan's most amusing work. i
got to bed rather early.
today:
i woke up quite late, after dreaming some extremely strange dreams (including
running around naked in a futuristic school / synagogue / gigantic
colloseum-type thing). i've had a pretty lazy day, but am now quite frustrated
due to a bad copy of rush hour 2. i'm totally disappointed, and i
haven't seen the ending. my cousin's husband has been sorting out his pen
collection. i'm really trying to take an interest. really, i am. honest. they
want me to upgrade their computer, which wouldn't be a biggie, but they want
everything in hebrew... i think i'm going to go bury myself in my new book.
Saturday,
October 02, 2004 3:34 PM
*sigh*
so tired.
all the time.
yesterday:
i went for a drive with the cousins to an enormous meat mall, and watched brother
bear. i had a good nap, and we had a birthday supper for one of the
cousins, which was rather nice.
i took the bus to tel-aviv, where i met up with the dog, who i haven't seen in years,
and we played pool, and generally arbed all over the city.
*womble*
mmmmmm... so many pretty girls. mmmmmm.
this morning:
i'm busy introducing him to KoL, and am about to steal his copy of the
elegant universe, which i've been looking for for ages.
*glee*
Friday,
October 01, 2004 3:54 AM
yesterday:
well, i did shower, and i did shave. i feel a bit more human. i ate lunch in
the mess hall, and then spent the afternoon relaxing and napping.
in the evening i called my relatives, to say hi, and while i was doing this i
called her mom, who has the flu. now i hate talking on phones, but never
so much as when the person on the other side isn't in the mood to talk either.
i was really uncomfortable.
we went to fetch my great-uncle from the home, and came back for supper. to
celebrate the festival (tabernacles, i think it's called in english), we all
set up on the grass with coffee and cake, and watched a cute show (singing,
dancing, stories...). one of the girls really made an impression: incredible
singer, and totally hot: i thought she was 16, turns out she's older than me.
DAMN.
i'm really bad at this... the soldier girls here don't look more than 15. boy,
am i EVER in trouble!
last night we watched a couple of movies, the score and october sky.
october sky was great, simply inspirational, and it was nice to see the
score from the beginning.
Thursday,
September 30, 2004 10:42 AM
hmmph.
i'm typing this on a computer that's set up for hebrew, is virused to shit, and
i can't see what i've typed until i've finished each sentence. superb.
yesterday:
i took a bus through to herzliyah, to my old apartment. nobody home, and i
didn't feel comfortable using my keys. damn south-african culture. i went off
to the idc campus, handed over the bottle of bells, spoke to some friends, and
got threatened by the new person in charge of student housing. the bitch.
managed to get around her, thankfully. and i put in a request to close my
degree. and double-re-checked that i don't owe the university any money.
i checked my back account, bought myself a falaffel, and met up with her,
while waiting for the new student in my old apartment to arrive. i got my mail,
and received assurance that my bed and books would be fine. nice.
she and i went to the mall, where we had a non-alcoholic liquid lunch,
and ran into a girl i haven't seen in years, who i kind of dated at one stage,
and upset terribly with my lack of interest. she seems to have gotten over it
(she didn't talk to me for months).
i visited SSSO, who's due to give birth within the next few weeks. it was nice
to catch up, and we talked for quite a while.
now for the army situation:
i expected to have to go into service immediately. the academic corps has set
my return date to the 8th of november. that's more than a month from now.
that means two months with no place to live, and the unit i'm in needs me to
begin immediately, as i have to replace someone. so now we're all fighting with
my old commander to move the date forward.
i went back to kfar saba, picked up my gear from sammy's, and he gave me a ride
to SxS's, where i discovered how upset they were with me about their cape town
experience. we went off to the industrial area of herzliyah, had supper, and he
then dropped me off at the bus-stop.
the bus ride was long, and uncomfortable. i did study some more japanese, but
i'm progressing rather slowly. i have time, though :)
i got picked up by my cousins, and we talked quite a bit during the drive, and
when we got to the kibbutz, but we were all exhausted, so i had a quick shower
and crashed.
today:
i woke up late, and have spent WAY too long updating this site... this computer
is STUFFED. i'm off to shower and shave.
Wednesday,
September 29, 2004 11:45 AM
last
night:
i finally made my shirts, and they came out BEEEE-YOOTifully. i'm rather proud,
and i own some very pretty shirts. yes indeedy.
sandman came over, and we began the packing procedure. then protoplasm and
associate came over, and we all sat around and talked for ages. they all left,
i read my book, and then airplane and co. picked me up.
we went to erte, where they totally ignored my order, the bastards. we then
fucked off to the beach, and talked a lot. this talking included the
israeli-palestinian situation, general anti-bush/thabo sentiment, and the idea
that corporations ruling instead of governments wouldn't be any worse.
i finally finished across the nightingale floor, and had a quick shower,
finished packing, and left for the airport.
DAMN.
boy, was i ever nervous, and couple that with sleep deprivation, and you have
an idea of what i was going through.
i made it JUST in time for the SAA flight to johannesburg, i got totally lost
in the airport there, and for the first time ever i got taken to that special
place for checking bags.
thank the lord that the dude wasn't being a prick.
i did some shopping, and bought goodies (like expensive whiskeys and biltong),
and ran into SxS's dad, which was amusing.
after a long, boring wait to board, i began a 9 hour cycle of sleeping and
learning japanese - i'm getting the idea, i reckon.
and the food was surprisingly good.
there was a mix up when i landed, and i had two people coming to fetch me...
how unlucky am i? :P
the luggage took a full bloody hour to get onto the baggage claim, and then the
bastards made me put it through the customs check.
maybe i should shave.
sammy and his wife have really made tonight easy. i quite like it here. i'm off
to bed.
Tuesday,
September 28, 2004 12:04 AM
i
can't believe i'm leaving tomorrow. it's been so good, and now i just have to
leave it all for a great unknown.
crap.
yesterday:
supper was interesting, but my predictive posts are almost always wrong: i came
home and went to bed.
today:
we started off our mission at my sister's, with no luck finding a working
printer. we then went to my cousin's in kenilworth, where i printed all five of
the transfers BACKWARDS.
DOH.
so i had to reprint them. they came out beautifully, however. we then went
shopping, and i found replacement trousers - didn't think that would
happen.
my mom dropped me off at schpatcon, for a day of munchkin and tekken. was a
nice day, and i'm sad to say goodbye to all my friends...
and to cape town...
and to a nice, easy life on holiday...
Sunday,
September 26, 2004 8:04 PM
alright.
i woke up a bit late, but not too late :)
the module this morning was quite fun, and we did rather well. the tekken
tournament, aside from some bungling, went just fine, and turned out to be
quite fair as well. i wasn't allowed to play, but as promised, i did beat the
winner.
and that's more or less how the day went. we played a munchkin game that lasted
WAY too long, and it was basically them against me until the end.
figures.
i'm waiting now for my mum to arrive, and then it's big supper time. then i'm
off to sweetiepie's to watch a video.
g'nite.
Saturday,
September 25, 2004 7:22 PM
i
can't believe it's the 25th already! how sucky is THAT?!?!
yesterday morning, before going to bed at 5am, i managed to get hold of my
mum's forgotten info, without having to touch windows 98. SO proud of myself.
two hours later, we went to my uncle's place, for coffee, and to be blown away
by the 60/70 inch plasma screen. and full home theatre sound. and i'm so
jealous it's disgusting.
after coffee, my mom dropped me off on middle campus, and i spent the afternoon
in charge of the tekken players - the tournament begins today, so yesterday was
more or less the training camp ;) i had to leave early for the whole yom kippur
thing, so i couldn't play in moonflake and zenstar's module :'(, i was rather
disappointed. and i'm going to have to leave early tonight, too...
after supper, i read for an hour or two, then passed out. and didn't wake up to
let my mom in when she got home - whoops. nevermind.
right, i'm going back to sleep now.
5:44 AM
i've
just come back from upstairs - great fscking party. but i gotta be up
early, so i had to leave :(
i'm a bit on the tipsy side, so this might come out a bit weird...
tuesday:
what an upsetting day. i put the pc together, paranoid all the way, only to
discover that i had the wrong power supply. so i drove all the way to rectron,
bought a new one, installed the damn thing, and the system refused to boot.
*INSTANT PANIC*
i was sure i'd screwed something up. i didn't feel so good about it. i haven't
felt so bad about anything in a long, long time.
my friend with no nick (erm, hellraiser) took our pc under his wing, and i had
to run off and drive my mom around town. which only added to my stress. the
good news: by the time i'd gotten back, he'd figured out what the problem was
(the video card), and i cannot express my relief in words. talk about saving
the day.
we had some coffee, then met up with another friend of mine for drinks and
kareoke. t'was interesting. more coffee after that, and then it was definitely
bedtime.
yesterday:
i started the day reading across the nightingale floor - i'm about
halfway through, and it's fan-bloody-tastic. i'm rather enthralled.
i ran through to rectron, bought a video card (far superior to mine in israel),
and finally got this machine up & running. i can't believe windows XP takes
so long to install, and i've discovered that my mother forgot to backup
something crucial, so i'll have to re-install the old windows 98 to get it.
crap.
my mum and i went through to my aunt's in the evening for coffee, and i made it
in time for TNM at shadowslight's. we watched dagon, which was great
fun. and we played munchkin. the game took a bit too long, so we gave up and
watched the gamers.
and then protoplasm dragged me off to the club.
Friday,
September 24, 2004 3:48 AM
crap.
day.
tkd almost killed the lot of us (three, really). at one point i was seeing in
flashes - my body simply was not coping.
my mom aggravated me majorly, i had to sit like an idiot and wait for her for
about half an hour, and i really didn't enjoy that. i then fscked off to
rectron, and after a bit of a struggle i managed to organize the components i
need. now to not destroy them when setting everything up. i'll have to do it
tomorrow.
went off to canal walk, ran into an old friend, and bought across the
nightingale floor: can't wait to read it. we had pretty good chinese for
supper, and bought a packet of white rabbit! yay!! certainly can't get those
in israel. and they had the coconut milk inna can, too.
i just spent an hour or so with my sister, catching up and scanning in some
photo's, which i'll put online one day, i guess, maybe. i *have* to print my
transfers, the waiting is killing me!
Wednesday,
September 22, 2004 12:10 AM
i
went to training yesterday morning, against my better judgement. fortunately, i
was the only one there, so i did my own thing, and rewarded myself by leaving
early. sloth, you say?
never.
after a much needed shower, i made my way to campus, for a serious cup of
not-so-serious coffee, and then moved on to my aunt's place, where i read some
news and sorted out most of my email (they're clearing the mail server.
again.).
i went back to town, and came up with a rough estimate for my mom's pc's
upgrade... today's the day to get it over and done with.
in the late afternoon, i had a too-quick ten-minute nap, and then went to
training again. t'was nice, but painful. did all sorts of damage, sweating, and
generally exhausting things.
and got hold of the demo dvd - w00t!
spent last night watching the emmy's, and the first half of the documentary
"the world according to bush". interesting, and it does lend a different
perspective to the most dangerous man on the planet.
Tuesday,
September 21, 2004 9:28 AM
i
got up REALLY early this morning, around 9.30am, to go to the cemetary. there
was a lot of visiting to do.
i just realized this morning that i've actually gotten something right. my late
grandmother made me promise not to get married until after i'd finished
studying. i'm finished studying. i haven't married anyone yet. i'm sure this
normally wouldn't elicit comment, but considering what i've been through, it
wasn't entirely out of the picture.
i read quite a bit of the curious incident of the dog in the night-time,
then showered and got dragged off to the jewish museum, and then the national
gallery.
interesting.
i picked up buffalo wings at nando's, and enjoyed them thoroughly while
finishing the book. awesome bloody book. and thank heavens i've now been to
london, or there were a couple of chapters i wouldn't have appreciated at
all...
i joined sandman and his girlfriend in obs, and after a bite to eat we moved to
cavendish. bookworms, the lot of us. i have a list of things to read. again.
we did a coffee thing, and then went to watch king arthur.
right. let's not talk about suspension of disbelief, and raging anachronisms.
let's talk about king arthur being a roman.
um, ah... no.
let's talk about lancelot being a dodgy ponce with no romantic interest in
guinevere.
ummm, errr.... no.
let's talk about keira knightley being a sexy, sexy, sexyn bitch.
oh, yes.
on my way home, i was annoyed by a set of brights right behind me. so i slowed
down to let the idiot pass. and the idiot slowed down. so i slowed down some
more. so did he.
this went on till we were doing about 30-40 kph, and i was getting really,
really angry. he sped up a little, and i sat behind him for a while with my
brights on, and he seemed to get the idea and fucked off.
but - WHY?!?!
and then i got home to find that some prick had parked across our parking
entrance. WTF?!?!
watching the paralympics is inspiring. we're taping a documentary on bush's
stupidity (can't wait!). i'm irritated that i finally have shirts and transfer
paper, and our printer sucks and the scanner ain't workin'.
@!$%.
Monday,
September 20, 2004 12:39 AM
less
drained, ACTUALLY. firstfallen's surplise party was really, really nice. good food,
good company, and she ACTUALLY like my pressie! yay!
not only did we find out about synkronos' 2000AD collection (*DAMN*), but we
had a rather entertaining general CLAWs meeting, which was unusually
productive.
my car got stuck in the mud outside moonflake's, and i only discovered a
solution once they were already outside. so i had a moral support team, and it
seems to have helped ;)
time for bed. or pre-bed reading. whichever.
-- oh my! i might get to an offspring concert tomorrow night! w00t!! --
Sunday,
September 19, 2004 12:59 AM
thursday
(16th):
thursday night supper was cool, and the food was good. i quite enjoyed being
with my cousins again.
yesterday:
training yesterday morning was more educational than usual: i've been informed
that i'm flat-footed when i fight, so i now have something to work on.
i managed to recruit some people into KAOS, and i made it to the Annual
Gnarlyburr Marathon, which i haven't seen since '99...
my mum and i went to acupuncture together, which was really nice. cleansing.
supper last night was chilled, and babyacid's birthday thingum was rather nice,
but i had to go home early due to general fatigue and a lack of breathing
potential (too much smoke).
today so far:
i hate malls, and i started my day off in one. pre-breakfast. i picked up a
couple of t-shirts, but that was as productive as it got. we then picked up
some iron-on transfer paper, and went to the waterfront for breakfast and
prezzie-shopping.
breakfast was nice - waffles with cream, and serious chocachino. i felt much
better for it, less agitated. my mom has now officially missed shrek ii,
as with so many other great films, and i'm a tad disappointed.
i got myself the curious incident of the dog in the night, for not too
much money, and two books that will apparently start me off on the road to
speaking japanese.
instead of doing some work, i'm about to nap for a bit (and read, too), and then
later on i'll just see who's where.
Saturday,
September 18, 2004 2:40 PM
supper
last night was nice.
training this morning was nice. only two of us, doing forms. my legs still hurt
badly afterwards, though.
lunch this afternoon was not so nice. rather uncomfortable, didn't know anyone,
many elderly, the only person my age was a not-so-cute chick.
we tried to visit an art gallery in town, but they've had this brilliant idea
and turned all the paintings around, so that we can see what's written on the
backs of them. they can fuck right off, that's just stupid, and not exactly
art.
napping this afternoon was alright. that's about everything so far.
Thursday,
September 16, 2004 8:10 PM
yesterday:
i slept most of yesterday, and went to training in the evening. training was cool,
very cool. but i'm sore now. *sigh*
today:
i drove my mom around this morning, to reduce stress levels and to acquire the
use of the car for the day. i was going to go to training, but i thought i'd
rather sleep in instead. and so i did.
i went to campus, to discover just how bad the KAOS situation is... i'm
actually rather embarrassed about the clawmembers - they are completely
uninspired and unmotivated... they're just a bunch of useless nerds. i am
ashamed to be in any way associated with them.
i picked up my mom from work, we did some last minute shopping, and i've been
arbing around while she's at the synagogue. i'm a really good jew. really.
so, happy new year!
Wednesday,
September 15, 2004 8:15 PM
friday
(10th):
hyper_viper and i started off the day at the starbuck's in green park. she
met us there, and we all went off to the science museum. nice, but not quite as
cool as i'd hoped. rather disappointing.
we then went off to the tate modern - now THAT was cool. we didn't have enough
time to see everything, but we certainly tried, and it's just filled with
awesome things.
we went back to st. paul's cathedral for a few minutes (she hadn't been
there before), and then back to the eerie pub, for a couple of drinks and a
good chat.
it was then time for supper, so we parted company. supper was really, really
nice.
saturday:
after we got home, i watched school of rock, which was amusing. that's a
lot less than i was expecting, but never mind.
she and i started off the day with oxford and regent streets, which
included hamley's - good heavens. we then moved on to camden town, for a
gander and some lunch (i had the lemon chicken *grin*). while shopping around,
i found THE trousers (damn the word "pants", you british bastards) of
my dreams, and tried them on. they were STUNNING, but very expensive. as i
leaned over to pick up my wallet, to see if i had enough money on me, i heard
an aweful ripping sound.
right cunts, i'm not spending THAT much money on crap. we left in a right huff.
we hung around lloyd's for a while, waiting for hyper_viper to join us. all
three of us went to kilburn, to find out about the evening's events - turned
out to be a bit more difficult than we'd anticipated. oh well.
we took her to the green park station, said goodbye, and then returned
to highgate for a quick shower 'n coffee.
we had some drinks in leicester square, where we talked a lot, and were
unfortunately interrupted by an annoying homosexual somalian, who figured he'd
found a good time to hit on us. after giving up trying to get rid of him, we
left. we met up with a friend, and hit another pub, before embarking on our
journey into london's nightlife.
boy, did that trip ever go wrong. three times we got on the wrong tube...
how?!?!
we ended up at frantic. aside from the music, the place was absolutely
brilliant, and the crowd was great. we quite enjoyed ourselves (aside from
three pints costing about R150 - we drank very slowly). i passed out on the
night-bus home.
sunday:
we got to bed around 3am. all three of our phones rang simultaneously at about
9am or so... this not only woke us up, but confused the crap outta us at the
same time. turned out to be the girls playing a prank on us.
we went for a drive into heartfordshire (did i spell that right? do i care?),
and came across a sign that states: "panshanger". so, when we entered
the pub, i asked "are we shanging?"
in a snobby english pub, this was not entirely appreciated. oops.
i've never eaten a bunny before, so i ordered myself the braised rabbit. t'was
good. the chocolate brownies for desert were simply too good...
hyper_viper and his girlfriend did me an ENORMOUS favour, and drove me around
london so i could do all the things i had to before leaving. this included a
cup of coffee with some cousins, who have pet bunnies, and children who don't
like the idea of rabbits as nourishment.
it was all i could do to keep myself from laughing: hyper_viper's girlfriend
was pointing out the pieces i'd consumed, and hyper_viper was saying things
like "should've been named tasty"... BASTARDS.
unfortunately, driving through london is a lot slower than taking the tube,
which resulted in some rather bad timing. the circle line was out of service, i
didn't have a zone 6 ticket, and the train changed destinations (WHAT?!)
between stops. needless to say, i was rather stressed and tense by the time i
got to heathrow airport. and i made the check-in by TWO MINUTES.
*gasp*
so i was just in time to board, and off i went.
yesterday:
the flight was AWESOME, and i actually felt sorry for the idiots in business
class. we flew on a 747-400, and the plane was practically empty, so almost all
the economy class had four seats each.
with personal displays - i watched garfield, and van helsing.
and i'm so glad i didn't pay to see them.
i was exhausted by the time i got back home. i didn't even have the energy to
go out for food, so we ordered a debonairs sub for lunch, and i slept the afternoon
away. i went to shadowslight's in the evening, for some tv goodness, which was
cool.
today:
due to a time-zone change, i missed my dentist appointment this morning. my mom
is pissed, and i think it might be because it's the second missed appointment
this holiday.
i'm currently reading introducing relativity. and my brain hurts.
i have slept an aweful lot today, i think my body may be hinting at me.
Tuesday,
September 14, 2004 3:04 PM
it's
warm, and raining, and i can't figure out if i should be wearing a jacket or a
vest.
*STEAM*
yesterday:
i forgot, until i got to the entrance of westminster abbey, that i didn't have
any money.
crapicus.
so i had to walk for AGES to find a place to change dollars for me, and then i
had to walk for AGES to get back. luckily, starbucks improved the return trip.
due to my inferior timing, i did a brisk walk through the abbey, which is not
only interesting, but architecturally stunning, and i didn't have time to see
everything - i'll have to come back someday. i did get to see charles darwin,
though, which is cool (i almost stepped on him).
i met up with hyper_viper for overly-expensive drinks, and we went missioning
off to the national gallery. due to our inferior timing (and some serious
stomache-grumbling), we had to skip some sections. all in all, it was
incredible.
we had chinese in camden town, and then went shopping at cyberdog - i wasn't allowed
to leave without something, so i'm now wearing a super-cool vest that
cost me lots and lots of money: but it does have a cyberdog label.
we stopped off at lloyd's for drinks, where i managed to slow my intake to a
single pint of guinness, and we then made our way back towards the station.
omfg - i have tried on the leather trenchcoat (matrix-neo style), and it is
good. i don't know if i have enough cash for it, however...
rabbi_e met us up on the way, and hyper_viper went home to change, and the two
of us went through to leicester square, and met up with a couple of his
buddies. i went to the bathroom to blow my nose, and i was wiping off a tiny
piece of tissue from my nose when the female bartender walked in, and she
reckoned i'd been doing coke... got that sorted out, though :)
no,
i can't give you any!
hyper_viper joined us, we drank another pint, and then the three of us went to
another pub, where i had a smirnoff ice. at least i'm handling, but i probably
shouldn't be drinking this much :P.
hyper_viper went home, rabbi_e and i visited his friends in a nice little
apartment ON leicester square (bastards! that's a LOT of fscking money!),
before i decided to come back here and get me some shuteye.
Friday,
September 10, 2004 11:33 AM
right,
i gotta have a quick shower and get myself over to westminster abbey, so i'd
better be quick... or else!
two days ago:
the braai was AWESOME, hyper_viper KNOWS what the hell he's doing. met some
very weird girls, was most disturbing, and we didn't watch shaun of the dead
because one of the guys had an exam in the morning.
and my word, i'd had FAR too much to drink.
yesterday:
a much earlier start to the day, hyper_viper and i did a peremtory clean-up,
and did the highgate showering thing. we had a serious starbucks breakfast, and
waited for AGES for rabbi_e to show up.
we all went through the greenwich, and visited the maritime museum, and then
the observatory, both of which were very cool.
then it was back to the pub. i'm starting to love guinness.
we met up with addict on the southwark bridge, and we all went off to the eerie
pub (that place just ROCKS), and consumed until it was time to run along.
i was a bit concerned about paying £3 for coffee, and then the waitress turned
up with an entire jug of filter coffee. which i felt obliged to finish.
TOO - MUCH - COFFEE.
i took a leisurely stroll to my relatives place, who i'd never met before, and
we had a lovely dinner, and talked a LOT.
t'was nice.
i got a ride back to kilburn, and had decaf coffee with my hosts, which was
quite pleasant, and then discovered that she was around. turns out the
reason she hadn't contacted me was that my hosts' son had forgotten to give her
my number.
brilliant.
so we all chatted until about 2am.
today:
coughing my lungs out. thank you london for the fresh air, but at least i'm
getting used to it. to be fair, i wasn't in too good a state when i left cape
town, either.
right, that's me, buggering off.
Thursday,
September 09, 2004 12:19 PM
well.
well, well, well.
i'm still in london - so nyah nyah!!
yesterday:
i got up late, and went through to leicester square, for an excellent white
choc mocha and a brownie from starbucks, which is far better here than in
israel. surprisingly.
i organized a sim-card for my phone, which has helped tremendously, and we
arbed around london, which included buckingham palace, the sherlock holmes, the
millenium bridge (and another bridge), st. paul's cathedral (which is under
restoration, i'm sure it's even more impressive in its normal state), a
seriously gothik bar (abso-fuckin'-lutely AWESOME), and more to drink than is
good for me.
after a quick bite to eat with my hosts, i made a mission to high barnet. the
pool was good, and the bar was great until we had an incident with a zimbabwean
and zambian, and we left just before the fists (ours) started flying. rather
unpleasant.
we spent the remainder of the evening at a friend's place, which was really
nice, and went to bed around 6am.
today:
after a quick breakfast, we took a bus down to highgate, had coffee and a
shower, and then went back to c. london, where we saw the tower of london, and
london bridge, and then stopped off desperately at kfc before returning to
highgate - we're now on our way back to high barnet for a braai, and to watch shaun
of the dead!!!
w00t!!
Tuesday,
September 07, 2004 9:28 PM
wow!
wow!
wow wow wow! this is all so cool! ^_^
the flight sucked, and we all panicked as the wheel hydraulics where damaged,
and we were stuck on an active runway for over an hour.
listening to herschelle gibbs' girlfriend mouthing off about her modelling
career (she's not that pretty)...
first things first. it's summer here. hot, sunny weather. i don't know what
it's really like here normally :P
the airport was confusing, the money was confusing, my phone doesn't work at
all. i eventually managed to figure everything out, though (but with stress, as
usual), and managed to get to kilburn a-ok. found the place with little hassle,
had a shower, said hi to everyone, and then went with her and her cousin
to central london, to see trafalgar square, whitehall (avenue?), big ben, the
thames (much less blue than anticipated), and then back to trafalgar square to
meet up with dirk diggler.
we walked through soho and oxford street, and the girls went home, while we
went to camden town.
WOW.
AWESOME.
EXACTLY my style.
i thoroughly enjoyed myself, and i'm going to have to spend more time there.
i came back to base to change into smarter clothes (seriously busy household:
lots of kids all covered in flour from making pizza, and the soccer buddies
were all over, so it was quite loud), and then went to leicester square, which,
on a saturday night, is a real experience. so many people... so many things
going on...
hyper_viper met up with me with about 5 friends of his, and we went for drinks.
and then to chinatown, to a moroccan restaurant (in chinatown??) for more
drinks, a nargila, and the usual humous and pita etc.
and it totally wasn't my idea.
we walked through tottenham court road, which was quite entertaining (some
serious freaks hanging around there), and then took the night bus to highgate.
it was about 2am, and i was literally falling over.
we had coffee when we got to hyper_viper's girlfriend's place, and talked until
the coffee wore off.
this morning, we were woken up with a serious breakfast - croissants, crumpets,
coffee, and orange juice. i quite like crumpets.
after a shower, and borrowing clothing (hee hee - a unity top), we took a bus
(i'm learning to abuse a 1-2 zone pass) all the way to high barnett (zone 6, no
extra charge), to spend the day lounging around in the sun, drinking, talking,
playing pool, running around with a rugby ball, and generally having a good
time. we actually left london for an out-of-the-way pub, where i was introduced
to a sunday roast lamb (with yorkshire pudding, weird stuff that), which was
SU-PERB.
i just got back to base (my hosts have been in and out the whole weekend, so i
haven't really seen them), and am about to get into the shower and then go to
sleep.
hyper_viper has actually moved to london yesterday (as in, no longer lives in
leeds), and i couldn't have picked a better time to get here. we're going to be
running around london doing all the touristy things until i'm out of here.
so that's my news, i'm absolutely LOVING it here, it's wonderful and exciting
and fun. the money's a bit weird, but i'm not converting - just going with
everyone's advice and letting that see me through.
and letting them buy me drinks, of course :P
i've just had decaf coffee and biscuits, and now it's bedtime. *happy sigh*
Monday,
September 06, 2004 1:33 AM
due
to lack of updation, some of the following may be inaccurate.
tuesday (31st Aug):
i'd forgotten to eat during the day, so i never made it to training. that about
sums up my day.
wednesday (1st Sept):
i'd forgotten about it being spring. it rains in spring, but it's hot. hmmm.
i trained hard in the morning, went through to zenstar's, had an incredible
shower (he has an incredible shower), watched jackie chan's police stories
(1 and 2), trained some more, and my mom and i ordered pizza for supper. a good
day, all in all.
thursday:
i had a good training in the morning, followed by good doughnuts.
mmm, doughnuts.
after a good shower, i went off to do some shopping in milnerton, which never
got done. my mom had to work, and i ended up following her around. it sucked.
i had about an hour's nap in the afternoon, before going to fetch my mom from
work. i wanted to go to shadowlight's for TNM, but my mom was busy and i had to
wait again. more frustration, and i missed the first half of hellboy -
AAARGH! and it was good enough that i thoroughly enjoyed the second half!
we then watched the first episode of stargate: atlantis, which was
AMAZING. we settled on some things apropos KAOS, and then shadowslight dropped
me off at home. which included coffee, and a fantastic piece of oriental
translation.
friday:
i slept late. i called the danish consulate, beginning my attempt to re-connect
with my ex-girlfriend through her family. that sounds a lot dodgier than it is.
i drove my mom to town, and picked up my second mum on the way back. ran into
security guards wielding uzi's - don't they know that it's best used as a
throwing weapon?
i went through to century city, and acquired an international student card. now
i have to remember to USE the damn thing...
lunch was made up of more samoosas, which is happily consumed before returning
home for a nap. i then went to town, picked up my mom and went with her to
milnerton, where we did some last minute mr. price shopping. we then went to
the waterfront to buy gifts for my host families, had some coffee while there,
before going home to pack and say goodbye.
saturday (4th):
i slept terribly, and it was a LONG flight.
bugger.
the food was aweful, and the landing was absolutely frightening.
-- continued in next post ---
1:32 AM
my
word, that was an EXCELLENT way to begin the day. 8.30 saw me entering the
acupuncturist's, for an hour of prickly meditation. very nice.
the only problem is that i'm still completely stiff... the training yesterday
really did me in.
sunday:
i can't believe i wasted all that time watching the preliminaries - they were
bloody aweful. my mom picked me up, and we went to a picnic birthday
celebration for my aunt. i couldn't keep my eyes open, so i spent a couple of
hours on my back in the grass.
t'was pleasant.
in the evening shadowslight picked me up, and we went through to play in
babyacid's vampire game. i really enjoyed myself - both the game, and the
evening in general.
yesterday:
i got up around 7.30, drove my mom to work, then went to training. firstly, it
was really nice being welcomed back so readily. secondly, the last time i
trained so hard (and properly, too) was a year ago, when i was here last.
i also found out the story behind the south african olympic team - these guys
were selected FIVE YEARS AGO. we have SO much better here, and they just
weren't given a chance.
that's really stupid, and most unfortunate.
i was quite sore after training, and went home and had a good, hot shower.
after lunch, i drove through to my aunt's, where i started on the invoicing
system - i've realized that i have a LONG way to go with this, and i'm not so
sure i'll be able to finish before i leave.
whoops.
i went to training in the evening, too. it took a lot of courage, but i was
compelled to make the most of my time here (no comments about not training till
now, i had to WANT to train).
boy, was that EVER a mistake. i feel disabled at the moment, completely and
utterly beaten. my body is totally unresponsive, and everything hurts.
^_^ at least it's for a good reason ^_^
i watched the heavyweight final last night, which was far more interesting than
the rest of the tournament, and then had a hot bath before going to bed.
i slept like a king.
today:
i've been up since 7.30, having sorted out my mom's car (brakes), and getting
acupunctured. and eating way too many salt & vinegar chips for breakfast.
time to work.
Tuesday,
August 31, 2004 12:42 PM
wow.
i can't work out if i didn't sleep at all, or if i just spent the few hours on
the mattress dreaming of explosions, gunfire, and angry screams. the lan party
was quite fun, either way :)
yesterday:
i spent the day resting. at some point, i worked up the courage to stretch, and
spent 40 minutes doing some serious work. unfortunately, i'm paying for it now,
but if i'm going to return to taekwondo then i really do need it.
today:
i've been up since 6.45, watching the taekwondo. it's disappointing, to say the
least. there had BETTER be some good stuff coming up.
Sunday,
August 29, 2004 12:07 PM
well,
the last couple of days have been hell. i haven't been able to sleep, as my
sinuses are rebelling, and breathing has become associated with trauma.
thursday (26th):
i watched the flyweight taekwondo preliminaries, which inspired me to get back
into it (as soon as i can breathe again). i went off to campus, spent some time
chilling and coffee-ing, and then returned to town to pick up my mom from work.
we went and got my ticket to
we went and got my ticket to
we went, and got, my ticket to
paid for by my late father - the cute thing is that this is my entire
inheritance, and it was ill-gotten. ^_^
we had coffee, and did a little shopping, at the waterfront, and my mom then
dropped me off at shadowslight's. we watched the new the punisher. now
that movie would've SUCKED the big one, if it hadn't been a good group of
friends to MST3K it back to life. i thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
oh, and the peppadew, mushroom and pepperoni pizza DIDN'T give me nightmares!
w00t!
yesterday:
no sleep for me. i gurgled around and blew my nose the entire night. it sucked.
i took a taxi into town in the early afternoon, and my mom dropped me off in
obs, where i had a quick snack, and joined the boys for our more-or-less weekly
universalis game. which was terribly entertaining, although we didn't
get that much actual story in.
and i have been formally introduced to devil may cry. what a cool
freakin' game.
last night we had a standard friday night supper, and we were graced with
sweetiepie's presence. it was a most enjoyable evening. afterwards we went for
drinks, then coffee, and had a jolly good chat, which i really needed. i'm
actually feeling quite a bit better.
today:
i slept a lot better, but still not great. i'm supposed to be going to the LAN
party today, but i don't have a clue when / where / how.
*sigh*
Saturday,
August 28, 2004 1:13 PM
it's
fucking 6AM, but my
sinuses and a post-nasal drip have denied me any more "sleep".
CRAPICUS.
yesterday was, erm, interesting.
i lie.
i spent the morning reading, and in the afternoon went to campus, finished the
book, handed it in to the library, met up with zenstar and moonflake, and went
back to town. waited for my mom for an hour at her work, before getting back to
sea point for an evening wasted.
Thursday,
August 26, 2004 7:06 AM
stupid
trojan horse writers. stupid antivirus programs. i just wasted almost an hour
dealing with a non-issue, when i should have been doing the invoice system.
sunday (22nd):
whoops - a day's missing. oh well. i'm fairly certain i didn't do anything
interesting. at all. the entire day. go me!
yesterday:
got up early, took my mom to work. i returned home, ate a few breakfasts,
passed out on the couch for an hour or so, and then went through to work on the
project.
denied - the systems were virused. so i paid a visit to my cousin at work, and
we went for some coffee at cavendish.
i then visited a friend at his work, before going to get my mom from hers.
which took FOREVER, so i got to clear my mail (finally!).
thank you shadowslight! i have gmail! weee!!
last night i went to shadowslight's, where we watched a LOT of tv (las vegas
is COOL), and then protoplasm picked me up, and we went to some club.
lots of cute girls, some great music (although some shitty music too), so some
spading was in order. almost successful, too :P
today:
i got home from -insert club name here- around 3 / 4am, and got to watch
women's beach volleyball! w00t!
i got up around 10 / 11am, took a taxi to town, scaled my mom's car, and drove
to campus. quite fun, really - i love lunchtime. ^_^
i've spent the last couple of hours working on the project, which has been
going alright (fingers crossed) for once, but time's almost up. i did wash the
car, which was an experience. i'm sure it'll get dirty again soon.
Tuesday,
August 24, 2004 5:51 PM
thursday
night:
there were two too many prince charmings in the house... but it made the
conversation that much more entertaining. the tv at shadowslight's was bust, so
we made do with good company, and some chez geek, which was quite fun.
i had to leave a bit early though - i had to get to bed responsibly.
yesterday:
i got up at 6.45, to take a shower and have a cup of coffee before running my
mom to work, and then my niece and nephew to school. i went back to bed for an
hour, and then hurriedly re-dressed to go to plumstead.
after a completely pointless meander around the area i was meant to be in (due
to unnecessary earliness), i entered the quiet, peaceful home practice.
they use long needles. cool. they hurt me. not cool.
i lay there for an hour, imagining all sorts of creative deaths, as the one in
my solar plexus REALLY $@%!ing hurt, and i was lying on another one...
i also bled quite a bit, i'm not so sure that's supposed to happen...
a couple of us played a demonstration game of universalis, which got
really interesting - we have a super-cool story to start with, which shall be
continued (dot, dot, dot).
i had a short nap when i got home, before we went to my great uncle and aunt's
for supper, which was very nice.
after supper, i finally managed to get some family stories out of my mom. i'm
still in shock over the amount of stuff i didn't know about my own history /
heritage, and some of it is incredibly good, some incredibly upsetting. it's
going to take a while to assimilate all of it.
and it does, to a degree, change the way i view myself. interesting.
today:
i got up fairly early, and my mom and i went to look at some apartments (out of
interest, really). i had a quick, mostly insignificant lunch, and then took my
niece to blouberg for a ballet thing, which gave me a chance to read, and
listen to the cd that karnaf gave me (for the first time). it really is an
awesome cd. and the book's good too (the science of discworld ii).
after zoning out to wrestling for a bit, my mom convinced (forced, guilted,
whatever) me to go with her for a walk on the beachfront. it was very pretty,
and inspired me to go for another run.
i ran about half the distance i did the last time, but i ran far more
consistently, and it was much easier. although i'm now completely buggered, i
do feel better for it.
the rest of the evening was spent rewatching edtv, and the olympics, and
now it's bedtime again.
Sunday,
August 22, 2004 1:16 AM
dammit
that took too fucking long! i not only got the two serious bugs kicked out, but
i solved another major dilemma at the same time! and it WAS my error, but it
had nothing to do with the section i had changed, so OF COURSE i couldn't find
the damn thing.
funny how one has to give up on something in order to get it. like when you
have a girlfriend, and that's when all the other chicks dig you.
i think i'm gonna go throw up now - the BOMB has been making me nauseous...
Thursday,
August 19, 2004 5:49 PM
well,
today's rabbi_e's birfday, another one i've missed.
* sigh *
oh well. this damn growing-up stuff is still annoying.
live and let die is complete rubbish.
i got up really early this morning, and gave my nephew a ride to school - i
promised his teacher i'd visit, so i did. being back in my old high-school was
WEIRD.
i then spent the morning up on varsity campus, which was quite fun :) i got out
a book on java, so i can brush up on the AWT stuff, and met up with an old
friend... t'was very nice. i did drink too much coffee, however.
saturday (14th Aug):
my mom and i went shoe-shopping in the morning, and we got a beautiful pair of nike's.
and a masala-steak toasted sandwich, with really good slap-chips (vinegar'ed
completely).
^v^
i spent the majority of the day watching firefly. firefly is the
shiznit. so pretty, SUCH good stories... mmmmm ^_^ (pretty girls too)
in the evening we went to the one ring, where we played some fun pool,
and generally had a good laugh. unfortunately, i had a couple of cigarettes,
which i paid for on the 17th...
four days ago:
i woke up at 06.25 to go for a run. i switched off my alarm, said "nuh
uh", and promptly woke up around 11.15. a much sounder plan.
i did some more watching of firefly, and then went through to my aunt's
for supper. her parents are incredibly opinionated people, and they had way too
much to say about the israeli situation - we had some rather loud and
aggressive arguments. was kinda fun, but it's getting old...
i then went through to sweetiepie's (her nick, not mine!) mom's place, and set
up a printer for them. we then watched a movie, the contender, which is
a great film. sweetiepie really made me feel at ease, and at home, which is why
the following happened...
three days ago:
i spent my day in complete emotional shock / turmoil, thinking about the past
few years, and how difficult some of the things i've been through really were.
and confused about my feelings regarding my relationships. very confused.
in the evening, i went through to shadowslight's mom's place to see how the
renovations are coming along. jesus h., i'm so completely jealous and in awe of
the place. it's totally cool and stylish.
after dinner, i went through to shadowslight's, and moonflake, zenstar,
shadowslight and i played lots of lunch money, and chez greek,
which was awesome.
the day before yesterday:
i actually went for a run! i lasted about 2km before my lungs began to throb,
hum, and agonize. oh, the pain! that was some serious discomfort.
protoplasm and i did a basic tour of a couple of arb places - one of them was call
a pizza, which has become more interesting than normal pizza parlours, one
of them was a cute bar(s) with a REALLY decent pool table, and one of them was springboks,
which is as dodgy as springfield's was. but most amusing, nevertheless - trust
protoplasm to get caught between a rock (the girl he'd dumped that morning) and
a hard place (his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend). the really cute girl
disappeared before i could decide on whether or not to hit on her :(
yesterday:
my legs were killing me the whole day! i took a taxi into town, which
turned into a rather humourous (spelling?!) event - we were overloaded
completely, with Very Large People, and i was sitting in the back corner... and
i had to get out first...
so everyone had a good laugh as the whole taxi was re-arranged to let me go :P
i spent the afternoon coding, and am having severe problems with the BOMB,
which are completely nonsensical and are driving me totally nuts. i did do some
messing around with the KoL,
which is always good.
2:27 PM
well.
well, well, well.
well.
i've just returned from the gallery. that place still exists - amazing.
i've discovered, to my shock and dismay, that i have totally outgrown house
music - and
everything related to it. it was a cute trip down memory-lane, but nothing
more.
how sad :'(
the day before yesterday (12th):
TNM was quite fun! we watched eurotrip, which was entertaining
("scotty doesn't know!"), and played lunch money and chez
grunt well into the morning...
yesterday:
i slept REALLY badly. i had horrible pizza nightmares - really aweful. and the
worst part was that i was aware of the pizza during the dreams. some pizzas
just don't know when to stop hassling.
to make up for it, i spent the entire day in bed, getting up only to go to
dinner at my sister's, and to watch the olympic opening with everyone. which
wasn't QUITE as spectacular (although spectaculary boring watching all the
nations entering) as i expected, but the firework show afterwards was
incredible.
Saturday,
August 14, 2004 2:49 AM
i
finally resumed working on the project yesterday: i'd forgotten that i'd almost
finished. i set up a machine to work on, and solved an important problem...
things could be worse :)
yesterday evening i went with sandman to the video store, and we spent over an
hour going through the videos to find one we both wanted to watch - mystic
river was an EXCELLENT film, but quite sickening. nice to see kevin bacon
on the other side of sleepers.
this morning i went through to visit some friends in somerset west, and it was
quite a fun experience. i'm now working (so very hard, as you can see) on the
project again, and a bit later it'll be TNM, although i'm supposed to fetch my
cousin from constantia, which is most inconvenient.
oh well.
Thursday,
August 12, 2004 5:29 PM
i
basically slept the day away. aside from breakfast, intermittently reading my
book, and going for a brisk walk on the beachfront with my mommy, i've been in
bed or chilling on the floor at my sister's place.
amazing.
Tuesday,
August 10, 2004 11:53 PM
i
just had an AWESOME sleep, which i've sorely needed ^_^
i woke up early yesterday, and spent THE ENTIRE DAY playing munchkin. it was
fun, and i did make it into the final.
where three of us screwed up SO badly that we essentially gave the game away.
oh well.
last night was prize-giving / the afterparty for the convention, and it was
quite fun. i finally met the girl who played sleeping beauty in real life ;)
1:09 PM
i
just got back from watching chronicles
of riddick - it was absolutely fan-friggin'-tastic!
beee-YOO-tiful. and incredibly, gratuitously sexy.
mmmmmmm. pure turn-on from start to finish ^_^
three days before yesterday (5th):
i woke up quite late, which was to be expected, and we rushed off a friend to
the airport. it was a hair-raising drive, but we managed to fly through
rush-hour inside of an hour, which was simply dangerous and unnatural. there
are some experiences i'd rather not have.
i was picked up by aeroplane in the evening, and went off to his place (with
one minor detour for drinks).
two days before yesterday (6th):
we spent the day chilling at aeroplane's, which is the coolest crib i have ever
set eyes on. it's every teenager's wet dream *jealous*.
i got dropped off at home with a couple of hours to nap before supper. supper
was very busy, but really good.
after supper i went off to protoplasm's place, where we watched most of trainspotting. this movie
upsets me more and more every time.
the day before yesterday (7th):
we spent the morning at upstairs
at mama africa
- this gave me much time to meditate, which i really needed (and still need) to
do, and the music was great from the word go. protoplasm and his partner got
screwed, as they were listed to start playing at 5am, and by that time no-one
was left on the dancefloor. i went home shortly after.
i was woken up with an sms telling me that i was late for the role-playing
module, so i RUSHED and made it to campus just in time. the module was quite
fun, but then it was an absolute RUSH back home to change into a princely
outfit and RUSH back for the LARP. shadowslight and i RAN in the rain, only to
discover that everyone else was late too.
bastards.
the larp was cool, but confusing. but i was typecast: prince charming ^_^ it
was a lot of fun... i've never come up with so many innuendo-filled one-liners
before, and the girls i used them on simply had to be intrigued. i even got to
sleep with the evil queen (esmeralda, to those in the know) *evil grin*
yesterday:
i finally got to bed around 2am, after a night-cap with my sister's boyfriend,
which also involved a religious / philosophical debate.
ugh.
i got up around 11.30, and rushed to get to campus, and managed to slip my way
into a module - which was rather entertaining. i spent the rest of the
afternoon playing munchkin, and sucking at it, and we then went as a group to
watch the movie.
Monday,
August 09, 2004 2:53 AM
right
now:
good heavens! i just got back from a club (for which i had to get all dressed
up), that contained more INCREDIBLY beautiful specimens of female than i've
ever seen in one place.
very nice.
also, i saw a couple of people i haven't seen in years, and the music was quite
funky.
i also got pickpocketed - luckily i caught the little bastard, but i just
didn't feel that beating him up would do any good. i'm also way bigger than
him. and i didn't feel like dragging him off to the police station.
thanks to the gods that i didn't have to lose my cellphone... that would have
been absolutely debilitating.
two days before yesterday:
i took the guys on a tour of uct campus, which was most refreshing. afterwards,
i went to shadowslight's, which was fun, and i saw not only arad, but zenstar
and moonflake too :)
the day before yesterday:
i woke up at cockfart in the morning, and went to moonflake's astro lecture...
it was @$%!ing freezing, but very interesting.
zenstar, moonflake and i went to canal walk to watch walking tall, which
was fun and humourous.
yes.
we also saw the preview for chronicles of riddick, which looks
fan-friggin'-tastic, and the teaser for avp.
AVP!! AVP!!
afterwards we sat at moonflake's for coffee, and i got to borrow terry
pratchett (et al) - the science of discworld, which is what i've been
looking for.
tres cool ^_^
i then met up with sandman, whom i haven't seen in yonks, and his girlfriend.
we had coffee with my mom, and then went off for drinks at a touch of
madness, which is a super-cool place.
yesterday:
i finally finished orson scott card - ender's game, and it was just as
amazing as everyone told me ^_^. i have begun the science of discworld.
the guys and i spent the day at canal walk, which included go-karting.
i sucked, but i did enjoy myself.
afterwards, they came to supper along with shadowslight and moonflake, which
was nice,
and then we went off in search of a party.
Thursday,
August 05, 2004 4:47 AM
29th:
even more family stuff in the morning.
i went around cape town with my mom, and discovered that she has a really
awesome job. veeeery interesting. she manages huge properties, like mall lots
and so on, and it's amazing how much stuff (and the different kinds of it) she
has to deal with.
supper at my cousins, absolutely amazing. we even played a board game, which
was incredibly non-characteristic of our family dynamic.
SxS and ru55 had arrived, and i met up with them after supper. we did some
arbing around camps bay, then eventually settled on steers for supper, and
played pool at the sea point stones. sucky place, severely sucky tables.
yesterday:
ru55 and i got to getafix around 3am, and left around 5am.
saturday's mostly a blur, aside from a great lunch at some cousins.
we had a birthday party for one of our uncles after the synagogue, and half the
evening was seriously unpleasant - our family's disfunction reared it's ugly
had, and it was most upsetting. the food was good though.
i rescued SxS and ru55 from somerset road, and we went through to obs to play
pool at the one ring with protoplasm and some other friends. was nice.
today:
we moved through to getafix around 2am. protoplasm and i met these two girls,
and we had some seriously warped sexual discussions - i've never been so turned
on by talking. crazy shit.
we stayed there until about 6am, i showered and got to bed around 7. i was
rudely awoken by my mother at 11am, with a fake cup of coffee (damn decaf), and
spent the morning/afternoon saying goodbye to the family, and then going to
take my brother to the airport.
i went over to SxS and ru55's with the psOne, so we had a bit of a tekken
session, which is always fun. we played tons of table-tennis and pool at the
hotel - i couldn't see straight, and i still did quite alright ^_^
we've been sitting in cafe erte for a while now - good enough coffee, great
music, and the internet more or less works. sign off time soon... $$$
Sunday,
August 01, 2004 11:16 PM
yesterday:
i drove yesterday. in my sister's car. which was NICE. far better than her car.
we all spent the day telling hysterical stories from our childhood, which are
INFINITELY funnier now than they were at the time. we're going to have to start
writing this shit down. we did a couple of shopping missions, and i managed to
be late for the evening prayers, which is quite embarrassing as a son of the
deceased.
the evening was quite pleasant, i saw and spoke to many people who i haven't
seen in a while.
today:
another lovely sunrise, although not as photogenic as yesterday (and i didn't
have film yesterday...).
Thursday,
July 29, 2004 11:01 AM
the
day before the day before yesterday:
this day just sucked before it started. i was up at 6.45, and missed the first
bus because i stood at the @!$%ing wrong bus stop. the bus ride took forever,
as it was peak traffic time, and it was crowded and uncomfortable.
as i got off the bus, my mom called me to tell me that my father had died about
an hour before, and after a quick (and not very
tear-filled) conversation i entered the student authority. although not upset,
i was quite shaken - it put me into a weird state, and the already-high levels
of tension for the day simply got a lot higher.
the student authority:
i had to wait for about half an hour, to be told that i didn't need to speak to
anyone there. when you've begun by explaining that you're in a really shitty
situation, it's not a pleasant experience. on the plus side, i spent the half
an hour trying to get through to the relevant people from the army, and i
finally managed to acquire the leave i needed.
i visited karnaf, dropped off a cd, had a quick cup of coffee, and he gave me a
ride to the bus stop i needed. i took a minibus-taxi, and the ride was actually
quite pleasant. i needed it to sort my head out a bit, but nothing could
prepare me for the next phase of my day.
the bank:
i got taken around for about half an hour, and was lectured on the
impossibility of giving me dollars from my dollar account, on account (bleh) of
it being a sunday. after the half an hour, they conceded that there's no
conversion charge on dollars for dollars, so they finally agreed to let me take
them.
by that stage the queue i needed to be in had lengthened dramatically, so i
spent another 20 minutes (at least) hanging around waiting. fortunately, i
managed to get through to the army again (after a LOT of effort and trauma -
they don't answer their phones), and semi-sorted out my unit transfer.
i hope.
nothing more i can do about it now.
i then had to fight with some dude to keep my place in the queue, which
resulted in a whole schpiel about "respecting your elders". it's a
fucking QUEUE for chrissake - if we all gave up our places, we would never get
to the teller.
mutha fucka. and he was only a couple of years older than me
anyhow.
getting the cash took two seconds. i hate all these slow people.
the post office:
i stood in the queue for about 20 minutes, which went nowhere as the two people
in front were simply standing there. i'm not kidding. and there were about 6 or
7 of us waiting. then some russian woman
jumped the queue, and got served.
>@
i gave up, and moved to another section, where i had to fight with a few other
people who thought i'd just let them sneak in front of me.
bastards.
dumb bastards.
dumb israeli bastards.
yes, especially the old women.
so, i get to the teller, holding american dollars. "i'd like to buy
traveller's cheques, please."
she not-so-politely informs me that i can only buy dollar traveller's cheques
with NIS (new israeli shekels).
"you're kidding, right?"
"no, i'm not. if you want to buy them, you need to trade your dollars for
NIS, then use those to buy the cheques."
"you have GOT to be joking! do you have ANY idea what you've just
said?!"
a small argument ensued, which resulted in me simply walking out,
with my dollars as they were. i will NOT be double charged for a
non-transaction. no - fucking - way.
i spent the 10 minute walk to campus cursing the sheer retardedness of the
system, and the people in it, but it wasn't enough to calm
me down by the time i got there. SSSO (at least, that's what i *think* i
nick'ed her before) got upset with me for being upset, so it took us a minute
before everything was calmed down enough to talk.
she's helping me out, as usual, with everything - if nothing else it was nice
to be able to really talk to someone about the day. it was also important to
see her before i left: she's been my
caretaker for the last 4 years, and if it wasn't for her i never would have
made it.
so, after saying goodbye, i walked home, picked up my surfboard and a crown she
made for me, and walked to her place. by the time i got there i was
dehydrated, exhausted, sweaty and hungry (i still hadn't had breakfast), and it
took lunch and plenty of liquids before we could sit and sort out an email
address for her. i hope she really understands how to use it :P
once i'd left, most of the pressure was off for the day. i spent the afternoon
in the air-conditioner, chilling and eating instant meals. i finally cleared
and did a basic clean of my room, and sammy was kind enough to give me a ride
to the airport.
t'was a fun ride; we always have tons of crap to discuss. fortunately we had
time for some coffee and a snack, and we said goodbye as i
began the security procedure. which was quite funny, as the one girl was in
training, and even the experienced ones normally have difficulty keeping a
straight face with me ^_^
i sat and meditated for a while, listening to k's choice and just
contemplating all the issues of the day, the week, the year.
an old friend, who i haven't seen since LAST passover, sat down with me. it was
entertaining company - he was accompanying his two little sisters, who were
extremely cute (NOT in the sexy way), and we spent the hour or so talking and
laughing, which i really needed.
i had Yet Another Israeli Experience - you can't buy from the duty-free without
a passport and boarding pass. not even a box
of chewing gum.
now... HOW THE FUCK DID I GET IN THERE WITHOUT THOSE THINGS IN THE FIRST PLACE?
HUH?
Yet Another Retarded Policy.
the beginning of the flight was quite funny. we tried to arrange a seat swap so
that i could sit next to this friend of mine, and we ended up with a seriously
comlex plan, that involved about ten people switching. this would've worked out
alright, except that there was one too many demands for a window-seat (3 of
'em), and so although it was a switch that would've made most of us much
happier, we had to stay in the same places.
disappointing.
but i still feel that my organizational skills have dramatically
improved :D
the day before yesterday:
the flight sucked ASS. i barely slept, although the steward/ess(e)s thought i
was one of the security team, so i got preferential treatment. oh, and i
watched starsky and hutch, which wasn't very funny, but it was another
cute ben stiller flick.
oh, yeah. the food. not really food. so much as dehydrated just-add-water
crap-inna-bucket. as if i didn't have enough problems, 'cause my stomache was
already doing funny things from all the stress and bad eating from the previous
days.
i was completely AMAZED in johannesburg. firstly, it was 3o, which
is only about 30o colder than the day before. secondly, everything
went so smoothly, than it felt like i basically slid from plane to plane.
everyone was polite and efficient. not quite what i'm used to.
the second flight was a BAZILLION times better. the food was decent, the people
were behaved, and it was far more comfortable.
i arrived in cape town, picked up my bag, and got a big hug from the mommy.
it's taken me until this morning to register that i'm ACTUALLY in cape town -
everything between landing and now has seemed like a sequence of too-beautiful
photos (like the faked stuff from digitalblasphemy). we drove home, had a meeting with the
rabbi about funeral protocol, showered, dressed, and drove to the funeral.
oh, yes. my brother and i aren't supposed to do anything fun for the next 11
months. yeah fucking right.
the funeral was a WEIRD experience, from start to finish. i haven't seen my
younger sister in many years, and while she didn't look as bad as everyone
described, she didn't look so good either. her profession's been catching up to
her. i also met her mom, and i've never heard a good word about this woman, who
was seriously overly-friendly.
there were a lot of well-wishing people, and a few friends came too. the first
eulogy, from my uncle, was really good. he employed excellent doublespeak, and
it was like listening to two completely different stories at the same time. we
were all quite impressed.
the second was from the rabbi, and a lot of what he said just wasn't right. he
really means well, but there are some things you just can't band-aid. it's like
saying that joseph stalin really wasn't such a bad guy.
i realized, as we interred the body, that i don't really harbour ill-will
towards his body. it's the controller that did a bum job. leaving was a bit
complicated - everyone wants to say hi, and do the whole well-wishing thing.
some of it was sweet, some was really uncomfortable, and some was just plain
aweful. but we smiled the sad smile (at least i HOPE that's what it looked
like), and after all was said and done, we went back to the house. the evening
meal
was very simple, but pleasant nonetheless, but very soon we were all completely
bombed and it was bedtime all around.
yesterday:
i got up around 8.30, and i have no idea why. i arbed around for a bit, had me
a jungle-oats breakfast, and then went to my sister's for a long talk. i went
to my visit my brother afterwards, and got there just in time to put a stop to
a really aweful sequence of events - there were just a lot of unfortunate
coincidences going around, and things were getting interesting (in a very bad
sort of way).
not only did we sort everything out, but we also had a serious talk about
stuff, which we really needed.
everyone came over, we had some interesting discussions, and then my sister and
i gave an uncle a ride to the traffic station to recover his towed car. he was
supposed to meet us outside when he was done, but forgot and drove straight
home, so we sat for about half an hour there before we got fed-up and phoned
him...
hmmph.
we went to clear stuff from the post office, and then moved on to woodstock,
where i got my phone unblocked (for FAR cheaper than in
israel). by the time we'd done some shopping, and gotten home, it was 17.30,
and we were meant to be in the synagogue by 17.45 - after i'd showered and
gotten dressed, i made it there JUST in time to leave... whoops. my entrance
was a TAD embarrassing.
the sunset was INCREDIBLE. the sky became a rainbow, with all the palm trees
silhouetted against it, the water a deep blue dimming towards the horizon...
the evening was somewhat complicated, with lots of running around, but also
very nice, with lots of interesting conversations and general togetherness -
the funny part of all this is that we're supposed to be mourning my father:
this is the first time the family's been all together, with everyone enjoying
themselves, and it's mainly because he's not there to stuff it all up...
and the food was simply AMAZING. so much good stuff, i had to taste
a tiny bit of everything to make sure i got it all - AND there were serious
leftovers, so when i got the munchies later there was plenty to choose from ^_^
my brother and i spent some time together after everyone left, which
was concluded by a drive to the ATM. that fscking car (my father's) is simply
amazing.
this morning:
omfg - i finally got some internet time, and my mom's pc, and the internet in
south africa in general, is rediculously outdated, clunky, and bizarre. this
whole country needs some serious IT therapy.
omfg - i just had breakfast. a snackwich and coffee, standing on the balcony
overlooking a scene so beautiful that my eyes hurt. and i thought last night's
sunset was pretty...
10:48 AM
hmmph
- my father's picked a fine time to start dying... now, instead of the crazy
pressure of having under two weeks to pack and leave my apartment (and finish
up with the project), i now have to be able to leave at any moment.
bugger.
19th:
she slept over, and we slept late. we had a big breakfast, and then an
argument (which turned into a really good conversation), she disappeared, and i
went to yogi's to work. in the evening we played beach volleyball, which was
nice.
yesterday:
i got up fairly early, and went searching for cardboard boxes to pack into.
only the university (the last place i looked - duh!) had any. i got suckered
into making some international PR phone calls, and then got a ride home with
the boxes.
i didn't mention it was SERIOUSLY hot yesterday, and i spent hours on my
blades. i sweated like a muthafunsta.
i spent the afternoon and evening sorting and packing, with a break to teach
english (damn that sucked), and after a quick shower i came to work.
today:
my last night at work, and it just HAD to be a busy one. the only real
bother is that i have to do stuffTM, and i can't get to sleep
until i've packed everything that's on my bed...
Wednesday,
July 21, 2004 4:26 AM
yesterday:
i kept passing out at work, and my manager was sitting right next to me :( at
least i've quit already, and i didn't make any mistakes anyway :P
at one point i had a nightmare in which a cockroach jumped at my face, and i
woke with a gasp like you see in the movies... that was kinda embarrassing :$
i got home around 6am. i played some counterstrike while waiting for the hot
water cyclinder, had a much needed shower (it's been a hot, sticky couple of
days), and finally got to sleep around 7.
i basically wasted yesterday, reading and sleeping, watching tv. i did some shopping, at least :)
last night i went with her
to watch shrek 2, which was AWESOME. i wish i didn't take comedies so
seriously... the parts where prince charming was successful were a bit
difficult for me :P
today:
i had a great breakfast, and watched kill me later, which is quite a
cute movie. yogi picked me up, we had lunch with his family, and we're now
studying for the exam tomorrow - really hard, as you can see.
i've learned all sorts of interesting things,
really, i have.
Saturday,
July 10, 2004 4:41 PM
yesterday:
food packing was fun! although i was hungry, and i had to keep fighting the
urge to snack on the food of the needy.
I'm needy too.
after the packing, came the delivering, which was kind of fun. i got to
practise some more hebrew...
i tried to get some sleep when i got home, but that didn't really happen. i
read quite a bit - and then sammy came over for some coffee and a chat before
work.
today:
work has so far been quite alright, but i'm exhausted. really exhausted. the
world is all fuzzy 'n stuff.
and that's all i have to say about that.
Friday,
July 09, 2004 2:16 AM
the
big news - i got a personal interview for the unit i want to get into! wheeeee!!
it's just amazing that they're at all interested in me ^v^
yesterday:
i slept remarkably well, on the couch at all. goldenangel and i had coffee,
while i wrote a touching thank you letter for a relative of mine, then i
showered and she picked me up.
lunch was really nice, ignoring the fact that her father's still harbouring
some serious issues about us. food was amazing.
on the way back, we stopped to make out in the park, which was a totally fun
experience.
i tried to teach goldenangel some tekken, but it's difficult to give a crash
course in something as intricate as that.
buttonmashers.
SxS came by, we went off to yogi's. we organized a pizza at almost half price,
huge and with red peppers and onion (a SUPERB combination). we spent the evening
semi-studying for the finance paper on tuesday, and i got some substantial work
done on our project.
yippee!
today:
we went to a friend's place for a visit, around 3am or so, and had a singalong.
afterwards we had sambusak in the industrial area, which was quite tasty, and
we've just arrived home.
i'm off to the couch...
Sunday,
July 04, 2004 4:34 AM
good
heavens.
yesterday:
i went to bed around 00:30/1am. i read for an hour or two, and tried to sleep,
but failed. so i worked on our project until roughly 04:30am - it's #@$%ing
STUNNING, but i was #@$%ing TIRED.
goldenangel woke me around 9ish, to say that she was 5 minutes from my
apartment.
i was still half-dreaming when i met her at the corner. i tried to go back to
sleep, but that didn't work. we had some coffee, and then went shopping.
i bought a book for my cousin's 80th birthday, and a card which needs some
serious filling, and we ate crepes for breakfast.
was nice.
i introduced her to invader
zim ^v^
i passed out, apparently for hours.
go figure.
she came over, bringing her video machine and a copy on the whole
nine yards, as neither of them had seen it. afterwards, we had an AWESOME
supper at tal bagel's, and then watched the whole ten yards, which is
simply AWESOME. loads of fun, we couldn't stop smiling.
today:
we played a good couple of hours of pool, later joined by SxS and ru55.
all in all, it was a most enjoyable day.
Saturday,
July 03, 2004 3:35 AM
30th:
both my bureaucracy paper, and my seminar (bullshit) paper are in. i faxed my
request for army leave, unfortunately i forget to check whether they received
it.
how embarrassing.
i helped some people in my class study for an exam that i'm not taking - it was
interesting. some people just aren't destined to understand computer basics...
i slept a little this afternoon, and learned a Very Important Principle...
again. it never ceases to amaze me: the only time anyone can get through to my
cellphone when i'm in my bedroom (we have reception problems), it's a
particularly annoying person asking a stupid question while i'm sleeping.
unbelievable.
i couldn't get back to sleep after that... so i continued reading brian herbert - the butlerian jihad,
which is STILL interesting, and i'm about a quarter of the way through already.
it's a bit fast-paced, but then again that's become my usual complaint. i like
the story to be savoured, and i feel that lately authors are tending to put
more and more stuff into simple storylines...
i got to work around 10pm, which was way too early (but i use public transport,
so i don't really have much choice). i spent the evening clearing email,
reading my book, and even catching an hour or two of sleep.
today:
i've been actually working since 3.30am (it's 4.30am currently), and so far
it's been a quiet night (let's hope it stays that way). i've been playing kingdomofloathing, which is
a nice change of pace from the past week or so :)
Thursday,
July 01, 2004 4:18 AM
hmmm...
seems like the day has been longer than i thought...
28th:
the kid i taught on monday night - his math hasn't really improved. maybe it's
gotten worse. maybe he's just messing with me. either way, i've set him
homework - going through his multiplication tables until he GETS the damn
thing.
i kinda studied for the math exam. i sort of went through the sample exams, and
i played some VERY good counterstrike. i r0xx0red, even.
yes, i can be 133+. promise.
(really.)
29th:
the math exam was EASY. the three hour paper took me an hour, and i spent a
paranoid hour just checking the damn thing, 'cause i was SURE it couldn't be
THAT easy... hmmph.
oh well. maybe, for once, (just once o' lord), i did as well as i feel.
i bought brian herbert - the
butlerian jihad, which looks super cool, and i've enjoyed the
first 7 pages. so i now have 3 new gigantic books to read, while i'm in the
middle of exams and projects... very clever.
yes...
i spent the afternoon at yogi's, working on the seminar. unsuccessfully.
eventually, around midnight, SxS came over and showed us the light, and our
paper is now damn near complete.
WHOOPEE!!
30th:
we just had supper, and i'm about to crash. gotta be up early, as usual, and
it's already 4.14 here...
Wednesday,
June 30, 2004 4:07 AM
my
smilies seem to be getting worse...
last night was fan-friggin'-tastic. in spite of my mild sunstroke, i managed to
stay awake for a visitor ^v^
i spent this morning working on our project, which is getting along nicely
(although the interface needs work, and we all disagree on what it should look like).
i also spoke to dirk diggler - that bastard got a sweet job selling contracts
for a gym (he gets to work out whenever he's not selling), and he
"forgot" to tell me! so i spent a goodly few minutes cursing him out
- i was rather worried about him.
yogi picked me up sometime in the early afternoon, and we began working on our
seminar paper.
what a bummer.
in fact, we're practically nowhere near completion, and totally confused over
what to write. bleh.
the good news:
1) i have almost as much guarantee as i'm going to get that i'll make it into
the unit i want. while this is completely NOT a guarantee, it does make me feel
a little better. the chances are, if i don't
get into the unit, i'll get into something that's at least sort-of good for me.
2) i have been guaranteed a place on the kibbutz i want to live on! so i can
stress less, knowing that i can move there as soon as i'm finished with exams,
and that my stuff will be stored when i'm in south africa.
i just got off the phone with my mum - it turns out my period of army leave
might not affect my visit to london, so here's me holding thumbs...
*holds thumbs*
*sigh*
hi ho, hi ho, it's back to work i go...
Saturday,
June 26, 2004 8:29 PM
what
a completely shite wakeup. i had WAY too little sleep, and then went to teach
my new charge (the first one, at least :P) math (and english, supposedly). the
kid is 15 years old, and he doesn't have the first clue about addition and
subtraction. this is the first time i've been faced with the problems of having
calculators so readily available for children.
and that's aside from the fact that i have to keep speaking in hebrew.
SxS picked me up, and we went to the good shuwarma place for lunch. we then
picked up mmf, and went off to oracle.
first: they made us wait. after they'd already postponed out meeting for an
hour, we sat in their meeting room (at least they have good air-conditioning)
for over 15 minutes.
bastards.
then, when the person we had to meet finally arrived, she demonstrated a REALLY bad attitude.
i wonder if oracle knows about these people.
anyway, we now have our core project finished, and we've learned how to use
oracle's obscure workflow application through just about any language. now we
just need to rassle us up some fake QA documents, and we're home free. ^v^
we went to yogi's place for an hour or so, where i set up his project for
deployment, and made some important patches to our application. mmf gave me a
ride to work.
we got lost, and stuck in traffic.
i accidentally took his phone with me.
he's a little upset.
at least i learned how to divert all phone calls to a different number, that's
very cool.
so far, work has been busy - we have an official visit from one of the guys
from the US. must please the bosses.
*sigh* back to work
Friday,
June 25, 2004 12:02 AM
ok
- i'm not really sure how much of the last couple of days i remember. it's all
a bit of a blur.
yesterday: yogi picked me up (as usual), and we went through to his place to
work. we worked most of the day. we ate lunch at his grandparents - good food -
and then went through to university campus, where we sat around and waited (in
the dark) for an hour and a half... bastards went two hours over on their
presentation, and we needed to set up the machine >@
setting up the machine took a few minutes - or didn't, as we found a few bugs.
so we went back to his place, and continued fixing things.
today: around 1am, mmf came over. and we finally started working on OUR project. in a few short
hours, we practically completed the interface! and it's SO pretty, it makes my
heart skip each time i see it. we stole the idea of handdrawn images from kingdom of loathing
- and it's worked incredibly well in both projects.
so pretty.
the only problem we had was that the internet was down, and so we had no
documentation for the controls we needed - we sat for almost an hour figuring
out how to play with everything (the treeview control is AWESOME).
i eventually stopped working at 5.30, when i realized that i'd spent enough
time in front of a monitor that my irises were developing scan lines.
i made double backups of everything, and then crashed on the universe's most
comfortable couch.
yogi woke me up 3 hours later. his girlfriend organized me a strong cup of
turkish coffee, and as soon as i finished it we were on our way to the
presentation.
aside from 3 major (and very embarrassing) crashes (i *told* him not to mess
around with the acceptance test!), the presentation went well. the lecturer was
most impressed with my work, and i'm hoping it will have some effect on my
overall result for the course :P
that over, we went back to yogi's. [added]i had an AMAZING shower (sorely
needed). this is one of those showers that i don't want to forget. you don't
get nice showers in this country.[added] mmf and i spent most of the day
working on our project, which is now so completely beautiful that i'm
considering marriage.
*shudder*
we had the most amazing thai food for lunch - it's got to be the most i've
eaten in YEARS. i just couldn't stop! and it was so goooood...
yogi gave me a ride to work, and i've now been here for about an hour. probably
time to actually do what i get paid for.
Monday,
June 21, 2004 10:07 PM
i
just figured out what this blog is for. it's for all the crap i can't post on
my other one (due to people i know actually reading it).
my ex-girlfriend (we broke up just less than a month ago) came over yesterday.
we talked for a bit, and then settled on becoming, um, friends-with-benefits (i
can't think of a comfortable way to say that). we spent the entire afternoon
shagging.
and i was tired to begin with.
"children of dune" is an INCREDIBLE series! far superior, and closer
to the book, than the original "dune" series (plural? there's the
sci-fi channel one too).
Sunday,
June 20, 2004 11:32 AM
as
it says on the tin...
good heavens - this is so much easier than my current blog! and i don't have to
manually insert times and dates and stuff! or deal with ftp! whoo-hoo!
on the other hand, i'm not entirely sure i trust this site in terms of
moderators, and stability. hmmm. EEnteresting. maybe i'll just post double and
see what happens.
Saturday,
June 19, 2004 4:42 AM
comments:
totalwaste posted:
i wanna be my own best critic, so here we
go:
total waste - you SUCK! you suck PILES! you're an assmonkey!
but your work is sheer genius, and you say lots of neat stuff. kudos!