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.

So take it like a man…..and by that I meant you motherfucker.

I’m pissed at several people who don’t have the common courtesy of answering a direct question. Some old friends, some new friends. Some other who commit to and then cancel on outings at the last minute, or just plain flake out. The ones who’s “maybe” is not “maybe”, it’s “I’m gonna cancel, just not right now, I’m working on an excuse”. I gave thought to the gifts going with the tickets, I give thought to your tastes when I invite you to shows.

Fuck it. I’m over it I’m having the time of my life and just wanted to share it with people I care for. I’m quite good at taking no for an answer, so don’t be shy, just don’t leave me hanging.

So this is how you build your own gnome catcher:

1: Find yourself a pipe. Everyone has an umbrella pole, so I opted for that. Next find something you can shove your cord through the pipe with like a wonky, thin feather duster. I used an old slackline for the noose, use whatver cord or thinnish rope you have lying around. The important thing here is that the shover-tool is of smaller diameter than the pipe.

And on that note: to the dumb ass (or is that numb ass?) who bragged to me about having so much “anul sex”: If it’s really that comfortable it just means his dick is much smaller than your asshole. Whichever is bigger or smaller it’s really a lose-lose situation. And please, please, for the love of God, use a spell checker.

2: Shove that cord through. Yeah, do it baby, no lube.

3: An unexpected but welcome bonus of using the umbrella pole is that you can thread the sling through the locking mechanism thus preventing you from pulling it through during a misguided capture attempt.

So I’m off with my posse to go lynch myself a gnome. Watch this space….

A day as Gaddafi. Two stunning women very dear to me driving me around town on a gnome hunt

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…

A friend gave me a little speech last night, suffice it to say I did not like what I heard. I don’t want to be the person she was describing. I think I’m still scared of being alone, never having a girlfriend again and perhaps a little scared of me too. So I ended up dancing through nights, drinking a lot and pretending to be fine, but obviously I’m not.

“Self-destruction is the effect of cowardice in the highest extreme.”
~ Daniel Defoe

The universe has a strange way of letting you have exactly what you ask for and it looks like I’ve been asking for trouble. Thanks for friends who value me enough to say it to my face at a time when I value myself too little. And for giving me shit about 80’s club music. You’re right, that’s just wrong – what was I thinking!?

So this is going to be one of those not so neat posts, just a random bunch of things I remember happening and some stuff I’m planning to do…..and a pic of sexy girl, just because I can.

I mailed that musician, but it seems he does not remotely recall the incident and he reckons it could not have been him. Not the result I expected, but at least it was not negative.

My Kefir from Elmarie is still going strong (not yogurt as I thought before). It’s grown from a grain that’s actually hard to find, can’t really be bought and has some amazing health benefits. What a great gift!

My property transfer and bond registration is finally done. There will be drinking of fancy wine this coming Friday night!!

I’ve lined up a potential climbing partner who sounds like he has the same sort of goals as me, hope to start climbing with him soon. I may also get to take a Scottish guy on holiday climbing too, from our conversation it sounds like we’ll have great fun. I took out a Elna and her kid climbing and she’s now hooked - so much so that we’re putting up the bouldering wall. I’m really quite excited about it, pity I’ll have to wait until Sunday to finish it.

Last weekend I went down to Umdloti with Elna – her friend had a wedding and it sounded like fun just driving down for the hell of it. The weather was not great so we did not climb or fly the kite, but it was really fun nonetheless. We arrived about 1AM Saturday morning and had a few celebratory tequilas at the local pub before going to her friend’s house where we would be staying.

The wedding was a bit unusual for me, but the food was fantastic!! We ate leftovers until Monday. Thinking back of the neighbourhood we stayed with all the views of lush green bush, humid air, the sounds of the frogs in the swamp and the birds everywhere I really get why people love the place so much.

A change in lifestyle
I’m staying in my mom’s place, babysitting the cat sorta thing while she’s in the USA. Not knowing how long she was going to be and the whole move happening a bit hastily most of her stuff is still there and my stuff in storage. That’s gotta change as I found out I have at least another year to go.

In an apparent moment of weakness Elna offered to help me , or at least rope in a friend with some interior decorating skill to help me out. There’s nothing wrong with what’s there, it just does not feel like mine.

I’m planning to hold a wine tasting thing soon, so I’ll have to get cracking on the dining room for starters.

Speaking of which, the wine tasting is part of a larger experiment – I’m looking to find something different to do in terms of making a living. Bringing the wine up from Montagu will in no way make me rich, the idea is purely to experiment with doing something I would not normally have done, trying something new, getting in touch with new people and having fun while doing it.

I’ve been talking a lot for a long time about doing various things. The time do has arrived. I’ll be focussing on quite literally de-cluttering my life – catch up on all my admin and get the house neat and then to start doing, specifically the following:

• Get the wine tasting thing done
• Build a small aquaponics setup
• Learn about and practise share trading

I’m super excited and motivated to make things happen. I don’t have great expectations of anything specific happening, I’m just very keen to try it and see what happens – I do have great expectations of something happening, having fun and learning something new. Will keep you posted…

I won’t be the one you like
I won’t be the boy next door
I won’t be the chosen one
That’s not what I’m here for
I don’t like the way you are
I despise what you hold dear
Don’t you try to make me change
I’ll haunt you for a thousand years
(Slash – Dr Alibi)

I’ll have so much cash I’ll lounge wherever in the world I please.

I”ll be a Climber. An Adventurer.

Fuck it, all that’s BS, I just wanted to show this pic…    ;-)

I have an (climbing) itch that needs scratching….

My good friend HP’s employers held a potjie-competition-family-day-charity-fundraiser thing, it was great fun. Each team had a theme and one could buy beers, frozen margeritas, potjie etc. at R5 a pop and the winning team got to pick the charity who then got the day’s proceeds.

Personnally I think the ProCrashTin8 team had the coolest setup – it was by far the biggest and flashiest, but I must admit I’m a sucker for the nurse outfits…. 

One surprise was the balloon man who’s raising awareness & money for his charity – their aim is to teach teachers. It’s a problem across the world, and I know I’ve seen news about how many teachers locally are totally underqualified. Interesting stuff.

I only got into bed at 7:10 Saturday morning (BKTELM still going, was just a really loooong night) so I was greatful for my friends feeding me & having a quiet night watching DVD’s. I started getting post-midnight message & calls from friends at my hangout and I can honestly say I’m glad I was not nearby to be tempted into dropping by

Sunday was a lazy day with a friend bringing over a bag of DVD’s and food. Had a couple of bottles pretty good wine making for a chilled out relaxing day. Awesome.