I started catching up on some sleep after a full weekend’s climbing. Bliss. I really don’t know why I have this aversion to resting – best I could come up with so far is Cat Stevens’ “It’s hard to stay calm when you’ve found something going on” – so many things to do and so little time. I’ve realised how quickly time passes and I want to hold on.

But, one has to find a balance or else you’re trading quality for quantity. I only realised how tired I was when I tried to sit & watch a movie this afternoon and could barely make it through the first 10 minutes.

I digress, here’s the juicy stuff:

“Well I’m so above you
and it’s plain to see
but I came to love you any way…
So you pulled my heart out and I don’t mind bleedin’

She’s gonna want to explode
It comes screaming out
In an electric shout

She’s the worst thing
I’ve been addicted to

(but) I run right back
Run right back to her“

Dialed, wired & connected..
I finally managed to get my “drop-off-the-car-at-the mechanic” routine dialed. A beautiful thing really: that bike ride back, shower & drive out back to The Man to sort everything out at the shop is just perfect. I arrived at work feeling energised – no rude emails from silly users waiting for me this time around. Off course the story would be incomplete without mentioning my very good friend El picking me up again & dropping me off when I needed to collect the car – no fun riding bike in the afternoon heat.

Losing my provider:
I lost my phone and since there are some hardcore fans that had my number and INSISTED on using it all hours of the day, I decided to jump ship all together. Man, it’s been fun, except I got so hooked on that bad boy’s messaging I only realised after a week that the phone’s mic is not working. It’s been 5 days of withdrawal while waiting for the replacement. Unpleasant, but we’re back and it’s lovely.

Dinner for?
We started this little tradition of having a dinner party every other week – it’s been an absolute hit so far. In the past it’s been at El’s place who cooked us up all sorts of wonderful food, the next one is at my place and on top of it all I volunteered to learn & play a new song for each party starting with the first party coming up. Sorta aimed at getting my lazy ass playing again but also just making the evening a little more interesting. I started practicing my song last night and it’s going well, so far. I’m a bit nervous  – I said I’d try & sing too, ouch!   .

It’s going to be terrific having everyone back together after the holidays.

Dinner for one...

About that guy that stole my wallet….
A while back I gave a guy a lift only to realise (minutes after I dropped him off) that he stole my wallet. Even spotted him close to where I dropped him off & tried to give chase but to no avail. Anyway…..in the past month I walked up to the bar and saw this oke sitting there. It’s been a couple of months but I KNEW I saw him before. When I realised the connection I put my hand on his shoulder – he’s of smaller frame than me – and I looked him in the eye and let him know that I knew him.

At that moment I knew I owned him, I could feel it in my hand on his shoulder. But this was months later and I had no evidence. With bouncers literally twice my size I was not going to be starting anything. So I left and I was pissed, again (in November I loaned some money to a stranger who really looked like he was in deep shit and needed just a little help – no it was not a begger or someone on a street corner, I’m not TOTALLY daft).

I try to leave people with a little more than when I walked into their lives, take less than I give sorta thing. Would be kinda nice if at some stage these strangers stop kicking one in the teeth.
(Just to be perfectly clear, I’m not referring to any of my friends here, I could not ask for more caring & generous friends!)

So while it was somewhat tempting to become jaded old fart, I instead had a good sulk and moved on. Life’s still pretty damned good!!!

Pool party at Nea’s
One of the most precious memories I have of this past holiday is watching my very dear lady friend (a little tipsy, but perfectly well behaved) fall asleep on a couch while rambling all sorts of sweet little nothings about the evening past. It’s nice seeing a friend in her happy place.

It was a lovely party Nea, hope you have another before the summer is over.

Tint & a film:
Last night Nea’s sister gave me an eyelash tint, just for fun. Ja ja, get over it. You’d just as soon wish to be the lucky S.O.B. who gets to be lying there & get pampered. Preceded by Nea’s choice of an absolute classic movie, how much better can a Tuesday evening get?

Still to come – yip, still trying to keeping myself sorta honest…no story will be left behind
Carnival of the last drumming circle. Fire & Folk, as good as it gets.
Christmas with the Potties – all of them
New news – late night listening to demo CD’s of a band I never knew existed.
…..and maybe, if I’m really tipsy, the thing I share with Nelson Mandela

Chiba Fly’s music with it’s cow bell & djembe’s in my ears, toying with my urge to shake my ass. Lightning in the sky and enough wine to make me care a little less.

I’m in deep shit to be honest. I hate the thought of tomorrow, that cubicle is killing me. Good people, good money, work’s really not that bad, but still. No more, I’m living a lie. For too long I’ve been stuck in the mind set that if I can do something (and even be very good at it) that I should do it. I’ll make it my week’s goal to figure out a way forward. I do like I.T. – when I have 3 train smashes to sort out at once I feel alive, but then in between it’s like a firefighter waiting for something bad to happen….. you can only polish that truck so many times.

Perhaps the problem is that I’m having so much fun outside of work. Perhaps I should try and have a really shit time – after work I should go to some dive where I get beat up every time, then going to work would be the fun part?

So that’s me feeling very sorry for myself It’s really not that bad. I had an absolutely FANTASTIC long weekend. Thursday’s outing with the gang  (Muchness included) was incredible – first happy hour in a couple of months. The little fellow is getting quite the reputation!

I must once again thank Douggie for his positive vibes & company on Friday morning, words can not express what it meant to me and how perfectly everything worked out is simply amazing. Vlekkie, I hope one day I can repay you the favours you have shown me.

Friday: A seriously extended breakfast (starting with Mojito’s @ 9:45), a little downtime and then supporting a friend’s first event he hosted. Did the rounds at our “Clubhouse” and then the absolutely perfect lazy Saturday: many episodes of “Burn Notice”, “Blow” (how could I not have seen this movie before?!?!) and pizza.

I gave my first ever hand massage and it seemed to go down quite lekker. Strange, who would have known?

This is my week of decisions, can’t side-step them forever. It’s a good thing and I’m really looking forward to it.

A brief explanation from this site: “I went to see Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland last Friday. Overall, I thought it was pretty great, but one part in particular really stuck out to me. In one scene, the Mad Hatter is talking to Alice and telling her that the last time she visited Wonderland (this film is based on her second trip down the rabbit hole), she was “much muchier” and this time around she seemed to have lost her “muchness.” According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, muchness means “the quality or state of being in great quantity, extent, or degree.”

I’ve had such a full December holiday I honestly don’t know where to begin. Let’s start with Muchness…..

Much more Muchier
Nico: We got the gnome and named it Mr Muchness after the aforementioned Alice in Wonderland scene. Ja ja, a bit silly I know. The idea is really just to have some fun, use it as an excuse to do silly things and go out to unusual places a bit more. We will return it, promise….

I just got back from a “Muchness does Blackwoods” outing

So the short (unplanned) version is we’re going to be taking Mr Muchness out & about. He’ll be climbing, visiting museums and having an ungodly new years party. He may or may not have a Naboomspruit trip coming up this week – still to be decided.

I am NAFI. With all the love in my heart: I want to be alone for a little while – I don’t mind the odd friend, but no more family, please, not mine or yours. It’s heart warming to see how friend’s families and my own are taking me in, taking care of me, but I want to visit the dark side for a bit. It’s really just that time, and it’s really not all bad.

Just to keep me honest, upcoming updates:
I caught up with the oke who stole my wallet.
Carnival of the last drumming circle.
Pool party at Nea’s
Christmas with the Potties

…..and maybe, if I’m really tipsy, the thing I share with Nelson Mandela

A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour, so when you hit “rock bottom” stop & take a look around, there are probably some interesting things down there. Gems hidden where no one cares to take a look.

“It is not how we perform when we are on these crests that count. It is how we manage ourselves when we are in a slump – this is what defines a person. Achieving some personal goal never just happens. These physical realisations are the accumulation of the building-blocks we have created – the base of which is so often defined by how we handle the troughs”
Mad Mike

All dogs go to heaven

In the process of doing my first kefir trade, got offered a full manicure – unexpected, but then again that’s exactly what I had in mind I’m pretty happy to have made the first trade, delivery this week, manicure in a bit. Just plain fun doing something different.

Did all my preparations for the wine tasting - got the guest list & had a second dry run on the snacks at Elmari’s cozy dinner party - the test subjects were duly impressed. Now for the main event…

I’m having a ton of fun with my new climbing partner, climbing harder than I probably ever have. I’ve been getting in good practice on my bouldering wall (up @ Elna’s place, no space here and there I at least have a training partner too) and with another reliable and trustworthy partner it’s easy to push myself harder.

I did my first trad lead this weekend and I do believe I’m hooked. Such an adventure, even if the climbing is easy.

I do think I’m going to go on many more big adventures with Johan in all sorts of places, from the crags of Gauteng to some remote walls in the countryside - looking forward to it!!!

Congrats to Nico on his internship!! It was really good to hear that, knowing you’ve been working hard towards it. Hope you have a lot of fun doing what you love.

That’s me, I have a date with the couch…

Had a terrific Halloween party and met a possible new friend. Repeated my buildering problem at some ungodly hour, picked flowers and made friends with all the cats in the neighbourhood. Watch some great movies, played pool, repeat. Swam. Slept.

Recovered.

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”~ Anaïs Nin

It has become clear to me that I’m alone in my endeavours, not because there are no one else interested, but because out of fear of being alone I’ve clung to familiar friends, trying to convince them to be interested. Although they probably are, they don’t feel the same passion for the things that I want to do.

And that’s fine, really. I live & learn.

Now comes the exciting part, where I detach my endeavours from these known people: letting go of the safety of going places & doing things with a safety net. Exploring with the specific intent of finding my passion in life, hunting it down and killing it, before it kills me.

I’ve lined up a few little pet projects, all just for fun, just about exploring, meeting new people on unfamiliar ground and seeing what happens. A path chosen, destination: unknown.

The short version:
Wine tasting & selling if anybody is interested:

On my recent roadtrip to the Cape I got to know about some “bulk wine” of which I brought some home and it was generally a big hit among my friends. I decided to ship some more up here and have some fun - I’m going to do a little wine tasting & buy-if-you-like thing. I had a dry run with Elna testing out snacks with the wine and so forth:  it was a blast!! More to follow closer to the time.

Kefir quest:

My kefir growing & cultivating skills are exceeding my personal demand, so I’m going to increase the demand. I was thinking of a simple bartering deal – details to follow.

Guerrilla gardening: