and in closing,
the following:
the following:
- "gatvol" is the best word ever. and it describes precisely the way I feel right now.
- I'm going to make a resolution or two this coming new year.
- I'm gwan to the gym now to beat a circut machine or two into submission.
- Relax, breathe, enjoy. Here's hoping I can do just that.
For now, ke ya ko Africa Borwa
tsamaya sentle, oh blogosphere!
Post of Admissions
3 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 17 December 2007 at 12/17/2007 08:41:00 am.
Christmas, New Year, end of first year in BW, it's a big ol' month in so many ways...
Today I'm coming clean with admissions! WOO HOO!! I mean for what the hell else is this stupid blog to be used better? It's dump time.
1. After a good solid 10 minutes of soul searching, I hereby admit that whilst you can take the girl out of the northern hemisphere, you can't take the n.h. out of the girl. There, I wrote it. I'm re-reading it and asking myself "do I really want to commit to that sentence?" ... and I'm leaving it. There's lots of implications to writing that down - For one, it means that I'm admitting summer Christmases aren't as good (for me) as winter ones, and it looks like I'm not going to have a winter one for a long time. It also makes me feel like I'm succumbing to that status of being one of those expats who lives with one leg in one country and one leg in another ("soutpiel" in Afrikaans, translating basically to "one who's dick hangs in the salt water"). I tried to be all like "oh having a braai for xmas is fantastic! WOO HOO! I'm so glad we're not snowed in and lacking electricity because of the ice storms!!" I've tried to be the trooper. Now, I feel like I'm giving up, for some reason, and I HATE giving up... well, I feel guilty and kinda like a loser for this admission. But, after 3 southern hemisphere countries equalling a good 80% of my life overseas, I'm beginning to realize that when it comes to Christmas, I just can't help it - I want snow, I want cold, I want baked goodies (that I don't have to bake myself) smelling up the house, I want hot cider, I want egg nog, I want scarves and touqes and parkas. And then I want it to go away by January 3rd.
2. Petra got jumped by 5 guys at her house friday morning at 7am before leaving for work. To avoid making a whole ginormous post out of the details, basically they cut her electric fence and crawled onto her plot to break into her house, and ended up encountering her by accident when she went back up to the house because she forgot something. They only beat her in the face a little bit and otherwise didn't hurt her or her maid or her maid's cousin, and they were amateurs who only really wanted small, portable things like her cellphone, all the house keys, and money because they're on foot (they're always on foot!) Anyway P. is a tough cookie and it was just like her to fight back - she ripped the mask off the guy's head who was wearing a mask for some unknown reason, and back-talked them the whole time: "what do you mean where's the rest of my money!? You fools, people have BANK ACCOUNTS these days they don't keep cash in their house!!". They only had axes and knives between the 5 of them and she has NOTHING for them to take and they were just really hungry so they ate everything in her cupboard and chopped open her locked closet to get what cash she did have in the house (and her office laptop) and then took off through the bush just as the gardener came barrelling up the road with the neighbours in tow, to help.
She's fine and just a little shaken and within 1 day had gotten all the locks changed and a temporary loaner cell phone and what not - we came over and slept at her place and offered her Sech and did what we could to ease the nerves but.... here's where the admission comes...
Finally now that it's in our own backyard (her neighbour, our friend from SPCA, had the same pack of marauders on her plot the night before they hit P. Last week, the wife & daughter of the house up the road got jumped whilst opening up their gate at night to drive onto their plot) for the first time both me and the Mr. have had to admit that it can be dangerous here and while we always make sure we don't talk it up and partake of any of these typical whitie-in-Africa conversations about how so-and-so got hijacked and this is how it happened and so-and-so got broken into and this is what "they" did to them and all the rest of it ad nauseum, we do have to admit that we know it's there. Sometimes it makes us uneasy but it comes in waves. For the next week we'll take allllllllll the safety precautions that we're supposed to take each and every day, and then nothing'll happen for awhile and then we'll slip back into complacency. But for now, here, I'm gonna lay it right out there and say yeah, it is a bit scary here sometimes. It doesn't mean I dont love living in Botswana. Awareness and Preparedness. That's all you can do.
3. I'm not reeeeeeeeeally looking forward to our xmas guests (with the exception of Alan of course). There, I've said it. I'm worried that there is potential there for boringness and awkwardness. There's not really much else to it. Whew! That felt good.
4. I'm going to start a distance learning MSc course in Environmental Health and Safety in a few months from a UK university, because I'm bored to frickin tears with writing EIAs, & I DEFINITELY can't do it for the rest of my working life. That's the real reason I'm so easily distracted and have to beat myself in the face just to get 1 day of work done around here.
Well now doesn't that feel better!!!!!!!!
In other news, the night we went over to stay at P's house I brought all my ingredients to make the xmas cider. Still reeling from the fact that this girl has never experienced fragrant xmas cider. We used Savanna for the cider and since none of us had Captain Morgan, I substituted Drambuie and it was actually quite delicious. The next morning I made biscuits and gravy, that delicious artery-clogging american classic that I haven't had in over 4 years now, and it was a hit with she and the Mr. Actually, it was nearly so delicious I just might have to make it again sometime.
My xmas shopping is nearly done - we even got 5 stockings, and the majority of what I need for the xmas dinner menu. Well, everything that won't go off between now and the 25th, that is. The only gift recipients left to buy for are Mary and the Family P. They are HARD, man, HARD!
Photo!
those 2 words are like porn to me.
We found out what the story is with the severe lack of lamb in this country. Basically they bring it in from South Africa and all the whities in town snap it up before it even hits the shelf. The Spar near us has the best butcher in town (a South African guy) and basically all the expats are in like slim with him and lo and behold they get him on a thursday, just as the truck from SA opens its big fat doors revealing the mother load of magical, edible gold that is the flesh of lamb.....
mmmmmmmmm.
So today I'm gonna slug it out with all the ol' ladies and wrestle a few lamb shanks out from their bloody meat hooks and get us some shanky shanky good lovin.
I've been desperate to braise them in red wine, slowly, under a low heat for hours....
again I say mmmmmmmmmmmm.
It's just that the other day I came across these old photos from when we left Australia, our best mates had a going away dinner for us at Iain Hewittson's (famous Aussie tv chef) restaurant in St. Kilda and BOY HOWDY did we get some unbelievable lamb shanks outta that guy, that night. They were so amazing, photos were taken.
Well, I saw those photos and now for about 3 weeks I've had this god-forsaken hankering for lambikin. AND IT WON'T GO AWAY!!! I can taste it....
Monday night we went over to Petra's for dinner and she and I made an unbelievable pesto pasta with a mushroom topping and a goat's cheese salad and sat out on her veranda talking about how we should make a private-invitation-only restaurant out of her house. The two of us would make one set menu a week, select the wine, blah dee blah dee blah (the Mr. would be the waiter) and set up about 6 tables out on her rather scenic veranda and charge 75 bucks a head or thereabouts, for 3 courses. People could wander in and out of the house and eat at their leisure and would be on an emailing invite list that would circulate with this week's menu and they could RSVP on a first come first serve basis. Oh dreams.
(note: if my friends would possibly think that idea sounds familiar, it's because it is. Martin's ex gf did the exact same thing in Amsterdam and it ended up becoming a huge success and now she runs a restaurant under the exact same premise in the coolest part of downtown A-dam!)
That same night we tried to catch a donkey with a broken leg that was hopping around the bush on the track to her house... the poor thing... his front leg was soooooo swollen he was just either holding it up or dragging it along. I mean this thing was broken IN HALF. He was just so young though and so scared that even between the 3 of us we couldn't herd him up into her plot or get him in the back of the truck. I just can't stop thinking about him. Jackals could've gotten him or leopard or who knows what. He just was too fast and wiley for us. Nonetheless, I'll eventually get my donkey somehow, somewhere.
Sunday was the big xmas lunch at the yacht club.
I won't get into the details of it but myself and S. nearly had to throw down with one of my neighbours who kept jumping the food queue. It was nearly madness. The Mr. and G. raced the "Turkey Regatta" on G's catamaran that morning and came in 8th overall. Apparently the prize for 8th overall is a 6pack of beer - way better than the prize that Chris got for 2nd which was like, a bag of oranges and pack of Christmas crackers or something equally ridiculous. What blew the most though was that all prize winners got a KISS from this lady:
AGH! GROSS! yeah that's my husband kissing another woman. Drama in da hoosegow!!
Sunday we also finally got around to decorating for xmas. just some lights around the windows in the dining room/tv room, and a tree. Mary nearly lost it when she saw the tree- she was like "OMG! What a nice, huuuuuge tree!!" I was thinking: "dude, this is the smallest, fakest, crappiest tree I've ever put up in my life! You have nooooooooo idea!"
The hike with the Alpine Hiking Society of BW on saturday was great, despite the ungodly waking hour. The Mr. is currently posting some photos on The Other Blog but I thought I'd throw a few up here anyway -
there's one of good old Petra and her shiny white shorts.
... just what I'd wear on a hike through the muck!!
Here's one of the lovely corpses at the "Vulture Restaurant"... where they haul all the visible carcasses off to for the vultchies. Poor hartebeest....
The dam was soooooo full and rivers were flowing all over the park.
And we saw these guys up close and personal. I thought I'd put up this photo because if nothing else, somebody over on the other side of the Southern Hemisphere might get a kick out of seeing these guys actually standing up and WALKING AROUND....
(S&M you remember Duma and Letotse? They walked right up to the fence as we came trudging by.)
The Silly Disease is sweeping Gabz at present due to most of the companies around town breaking up on friday (tomorrow). The guys in the office next door don't do any work anymore, no one's in their offices, everyone's ignoring phone calls, it's hilarious. What's NOT hilarious is that Mary is going back to Zim for xmas so Reggie and Billy have to go into kennels and the only bodies that will be guarding my house while we're away is going to be Reilly and Sech. WORTHLESS!!! We'll just set the alarm and hope S and S-H will keep an eye on the place and those hopeless 2 lonely pups. We're lucky that at least they'll be around - evvvvvvveryone we know is headed off somewhere for the long 2 weeks.
I worked from home yesterday. It was incredible how much work I got done. No phone calls, no meetings, nobody walking in and interrupting, no internet... it was mammoth. I finished what would normally take me 1 week in the office, in about 6 hours of good solid WORK. I have been struggling lately.... really, really struggling. Maybe it's the Silly Season, maybe it's the fact that I am sick. to. death. of this stupid powerline project that I've been working on for what seems like decades... but I have really really really been duking it out with myself to try and get this done.
Well now, I've found the answer: work from home at least once a week. My new resolution. It's amazing. I put CNN on a dull murmour in the background, fire up the laptop at the dining room table (the least distracting, most empty room in the house) and hit the bricks. It was phenomenal: every time I had the urge to get up and distract myself, I just made sure that whatever I got up to do, involved some sort of other "work" such as washing dishes.
Boy that sure got me back down to the dining room table in a jiffy. Hell, man, it worked. I'm now at a winning plateau on this report I'm writing. So, new routine in the makings. Working at home at timely intervals during the week.
We found out what the story is with the severe lack of lamb in this country. Basically they bring it in from South Africa and all the whities in town snap it up before it even hits the shelf. The Spar near us has the best butcher in town (a South African guy) and basically all the expats are in like slim with him and lo and behold they get him on a thursday, just as the truck from SA opens its big fat doors revealing the mother load of magical, edible gold that is the flesh of lamb.....
mmmmmmmmm.
So today I'm gonna slug it out with all the ol' ladies and wrestle a few lamb shanks out from their bloody meat hooks and get us some shanky shanky good lovin.
I've been desperate to braise them in red wine, slowly, under a low heat for hours....
again I say mmmmmmmmmmmm.
It's just that the other day I came across these old photos from when we left Australia, our best mates had a going away dinner for us at Iain Hewittson's (famous Aussie tv chef) restaurant in St. Kilda and BOY HOWDY did we get some unbelievable lamb shanks outta that guy, that night. They were so amazing, photos were taken.
Well, I saw those photos and now for about 3 weeks I've had this god-forsaken hankering for lambikin. AND IT WON'T GO AWAY!!! I can taste it....
Monday night we went over to Petra's for dinner and she and I made an unbelievable pesto pasta with a mushroom topping and a goat's cheese salad and sat out on her veranda talking about how we should make a private-invitation-only restaurant out of her house. The two of us would make one set menu a week, select the wine, blah dee blah dee blah (the Mr. would be the waiter) and set up about 6 tables out on her rather scenic veranda and charge 75 bucks a head or thereabouts, for 3 courses. People could wander in and out of the house and eat at their leisure and would be on an emailing invite list that would circulate with this week's menu and they could RSVP on a first come first serve basis. Oh dreams.
(note: if my friends would possibly think that idea sounds familiar, it's because it is. Martin's ex gf did the exact same thing in Amsterdam and it ended up becoming a huge success and now she runs a restaurant under the exact same premise in the coolest part of downtown A-dam!)
That same night we tried to catch a donkey with a broken leg that was hopping around the bush on the track to her house... the poor thing... his front leg was soooooo swollen he was just either holding it up or dragging it along. I mean this thing was broken IN HALF. He was just so young though and so scared that even between the 3 of us we couldn't herd him up into her plot or get him in the back of the truck. I just can't stop thinking about him. Jackals could've gotten him or leopard or who knows what. He just was too fast and wiley for us. Nonetheless, I'll eventually get my donkey somehow, somewhere.
Sunday was the big xmas lunch at the yacht club.
I won't get into the details of it but myself and S. nearly had to throw down with one of my neighbours who kept jumping the food queue. It was nearly madness. The Mr. and G. raced the "Turkey Regatta" on G's catamaran that morning and came in 8th overall. Apparently the prize for 8th overall is a 6pack of beer - way better than the prize that Chris got for 2nd which was like, a bag of oranges and pack of Christmas crackers or something equally ridiculous. What blew the most though was that all prize winners got a KISS from this lady:
AGH! GROSS! yeah that's my husband kissing another woman. Drama in da hoosegow!!
Sunday we also finally got around to decorating for xmas. just some lights around the windows in the dining room/tv room, and a tree. Mary nearly lost it when she saw the tree- she was like "OMG! What a nice, huuuuuge tree!!" I was thinking: "dude, this is the smallest, fakest, crappiest tree I've ever put up in my life! You have nooooooooo idea!"
The hike with the Alpine Hiking Society of BW on saturday was great, despite the ungodly waking hour. The Mr. is currently posting some photos on The Other Blog but I thought I'd throw a few up here anyway -
there's one of good old Petra and her shiny white shorts.
... just what I'd wear on a hike through the muck!!
Here's one of the lovely corpses at the "Vulture Restaurant"... where they haul all the visible carcasses off to for the vultchies. Poor hartebeest....
The dam was soooooo full and rivers were flowing all over the park.
And we saw these guys up close and personal. I thought I'd put up this photo because if nothing else, somebody over on the other side of the Southern Hemisphere might get a kick out of seeing these guys actually standing up and WALKING AROUND....
(S&M you remember Duma and Letotse? They walked right up to the fence as we came trudging by.)
The Silly Disease is sweeping Gabz at present due to most of the companies around town breaking up on friday (tomorrow). The guys in the office next door don't do any work anymore, no one's in their offices, everyone's ignoring phone calls, it's hilarious. What's NOT hilarious is that Mary is going back to Zim for xmas so Reggie and Billy have to go into kennels and the only bodies that will be guarding my house while we're away is going to be Reilly and Sech. WORTHLESS!!! We'll just set the alarm and hope S and S-H will keep an eye on the place and those hopeless 2 lonely pups. We're lucky that at least they'll be around - evvvvvvveryone we know is headed off somewhere for the long 2 weeks.
I worked from home yesterday. It was incredible how much work I got done. No phone calls, no meetings, nobody walking in and interrupting, no internet... it was mammoth. I finished what would normally take me 1 week in the office, in about 6 hours of good solid WORK. I have been struggling lately.... really, really struggling. Maybe it's the Silly Season, maybe it's the fact that I am sick. to. death. of this stupid powerline project that I've been working on for what seems like decades... but I have really really really been duking it out with myself to try and get this done.
Well now, I've found the answer: work from home at least once a week. My new resolution. It's amazing. I put CNN on a dull murmour in the background, fire up the laptop at the dining room table (the least distracting, most empty room in the house) and hit the bricks. It was phenomenal: every time I had the urge to get up and distract myself, I just made sure that whatever I got up to do, involved some sort of other "work" such as washing dishes.
Boy that sure got me back down to the dining room table in a jiffy. Hell, man, it worked. I'm now at a winning plateau on this report I'm writing. So, new routine in the makings. Working at home at timely intervals during the week.
So I go to the "girlie doctor" for my annual appointment (which I've been shirking since 2003... b/c I'm so responsible like that!) and in one of the more entertaining performances of my week, he goes:
[oh wait - background - he's German. Veeeeeeerrrrrrrrry Gerrrrrrman]
Dr. Jurgenheidenschmidtenlosen: "OK, ja, Mrs. W... vill ve have a look at ze chart here. yessss, und I see you are now approximutely zhirty years old... und you have not had ze child yet?"
Me: "nope."
Dr. J: "UND, VY NOT!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!"
Me: hee hee hee (nervous giggle) mumblemumbleherrrrrmmmmmumble...
OK that's the end of that story, I just found it funny. I found him really funny actually, unfortunately that's probably just mostly because I got to spend a half hour listening to a dude with an accent like Helmut Kohl talking to me about each and every last girlie part in the human body. Oh yes how very Eric Cartman of me!!
So yeah my new gynie practice is basically 2 german doctors who are husband and wife. It's quite sweet. Mr & Mrs gynie. Which reminds me... I still need to finish one of my well-thought-out posts.
Tomorrow we are meant to go for an 18km hike in Mokolodi but the massive monsoon that has been pummelling gabs for the last day or two may have implications. Either way we won't know until our estimated time of departure tomorrow which is (choke) 6:30a.m. on a SATURDAY.
stupid alpine hiking club of BW!!!
Alas, it's a once-a-year opportunity, and it will be our very final last hoo-ra with B & R. This will be like, our THIRD "last hoo-ra" with those chicks. First it was the dinner party 2 weekends ago, then it was drinks at the art fair last weekend, then we decided to do dinner with them on wednesday night, and now LITERALLY on R's last day in the country (B's 2nd to last), we've decided to do the big hike. I don't mind all the going aways whatsoever, me being the socialising addict and all, but it sure does drag out the sadness and alllllllll the bye-byes.....
Dinner Wednesday was really fun. I love breaking up the week with an event for no reason.
Buttloads of offices and clients and consultants in town are already breaking up for the holidays as early as next week! WTF! Can it really be upon us this soon?!??! I'm not prepared!!!!!!!
[oh wait - background - he's German. Veeeeeeerrrrrrrrry Gerrrrrrman]
Dr. Jurgenheidenschmidtenlosen: "OK, ja, Mrs. W... vill ve have a look at ze chart here. yessss, und I see you are now approximutely zhirty years old... und you have not had ze child yet?"
Me: "nope."
Dr. J: "UND, VY NOT!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!"
Me: hee hee hee (nervous giggle) mumblemumbleherrrrrmmmmmumble...
OK that's the end of that story, I just found it funny. I found him really funny actually, unfortunately that's probably just mostly because I got to spend a half hour listening to a dude with an accent like Helmut Kohl talking to me about each and every last girlie part in the human body. Oh yes how very Eric Cartman of me!!
So yeah my new gynie practice is basically 2 german doctors who are husband and wife. It's quite sweet. Mr & Mrs gynie. Which reminds me... I still need to finish one of my well-thought-out posts.
Tomorrow we are meant to go for an 18km hike in Mokolodi but the massive monsoon that has been pummelling gabs for the last day or two may have implications. Either way we won't know until our estimated time of departure tomorrow which is (choke) 6:30a.m. on a SATURDAY.
stupid alpine hiking club of BW!!!
Alas, it's a once-a-year opportunity, and it will be our very final last hoo-ra with B & R. This will be like, our THIRD "last hoo-ra" with those chicks. First it was the dinner party 2 weekends ago, then it was drinks at the art fair last weekend, then we decided to do dinner with them on wednesday night, and now LITERALLY on R's last day in the country (B's 2nd to last), we've decided to do the big hike. I don't mind all the going aways whatsoever, me being the socialising addict and all, but it sure does drag out the sadness and alllllllll the bye-byes.....
Dinner Wednesday was really fun. I love breaking up the week with an event for no reason.
Buttloads of offices and clients and consultants in town are already breaking up for the holidays as early as next week! WTF! Can it really be upon us this soon?!??! I'm not prepared!!!!!!!
Movies & stuff
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 03 December 2007 at 12/03/2007 12:48:00 pm.
I really hate it when BIG movies pass us by and we don't see them til years later - particularly when said movies win awards and what not.
Luckily our satellite networks have loads of good movie channels and so we eventually catch up. Over the past week we caught 2 big ones...
Hustle & Flow, and Superbad.
I really liked Superbad and the Mr. did as well, we both laughed our asses off and BOY did they nail the true spirit of high school boys. The HS dynamics and conversations and dramas and all that crap. What with most of my best friends in HS being boys, it was like taking a big fat time warp back to the olden days of 1990-1994. Really, I found it funny, but I can see how some people might have found it totally annoying. Especially non-americans. Lots of sweet references in there that just might not carry. I just have a very easily entertained sense of humour. Couldn't stop thinking about that crazy McLovin for the next 3 days. HAHAHA! "McLovin? What kind of a stupid name is that, Fogell? What, are you trying to be an Irish R&B singer?" HAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh yeah and I know one cop that DESPERATELY needs to see that movie and let's just say her name rhymes with UMBRELLA and she abides in HOUSTON!!! :D
Hustle & Flow was another typical MTV Productions piece of work, I liked it o.k. but don't know what all the hoo-ha was about the soundtrack. Probably the thing I liked best about it was that it took place in Memphis, my old stomping ground. Every time I see Memphis on a show or movie I always want to go back. ~sigh~
Got the first damn awful sunburn of the year, this weekend. My back is sooooo red right now. Made it 11 months so I guess that's saying something but now I'm in pain and I'm meant to go to yoga this afternoon and THAT'S gonna be fun.... all rolling around on the ground and stretching and....YOW! The Mr. got the same sunburn too (we were pulling weeds in the garden in our swimsuits.... brilliant work..... DOH!) so we're both miserable and all "ow! don't touch me!" good times, good times.
My dear J is officially gone. BOO HOOOOOOOOO! He has left Africa's sunny shores and just landed in the poopy old U.K. I'm going to have to find someone else to prank call and sing show tunes with.
The whole day Saturday was spent working at the BSPCA table at the annual art show. It was great fun and we brought Reggie who laid under the table in the shade and napped all day, well when he wasn't collecting pats and cuddles from every single person there. Pretty much everyone we know in town was there, and they kept bringing us drinks from the bar and slices of homemade cake so how can you call that "work"!? It was great. Held a few puppies too... one of which had a beagle face but was surely a baby terrier of some sort. Typical Botswana pavement special. Also, we finally bought art! I've been desperate to start buying some actual art to hang on the walls rather than just my brother's throw-back photos in bad mountings and beer signs and whiskey signs and....crap. We bought 3 pieces of art - one from our friend & client's wife who's an amazing photographeress, and 2 pieces of Zambian cloth wall hangings... One of those is my favourite because it's of a traditional woman with her baby tied onto her back like they do here & I love so much (that's the anti-SUV-baby stroller bitch in me).
I have planned my xmas dinner for 6. It is pretty much going to be a repeat of Thanksgiving dinner. That means turkey. What else are you meant to have for xmas? Ham? I don't like ham! But I did see Nigella cooking a christmas ham on tv the other day that looked tempting. But I haven't rehearsed one of those before so I'd be hesitant. I will also be making spiced alcoholic cider, and need to come up with a dessert. OH! OH! Brilliant idea... maybe I will make Alan be my sous chef, rather than the Mr., that way the Mr. can be busy entertaining the dutchies and I'll have an excuse to hide out for hours without them! BRILLIANT!
Most amazing thunderstorms ever over the last couple days. Granted they only last 30 minutes or so but while they're out they're priceless. I wish Steve was here to photograph them because the lightning has been like nothing else I've ever seen before, ever, and who knows if it'll ever be like this again. Friday night on our way home from my new favorite Chinese restaurant, it was literally like daylight for a good half hour. Seriously the lightning would make streaky bolts across the sky but then the heat lightning would just linger for ever afterwards, and you could see everything around you as far as the eye could see, in the middle of the night!
OW! MY BACK HURTS LIKE HELL! WHY AM I SO STUPID!!!
Luckily our satellite networks have loads of good movie channels and so we eventually catch up. Over the past week we caught 2 big ones...
Hustle & Flow, and Superbad.
I really liked Superbad and the Mr. did as well, we both laughed our asses off and BOY did they nail the true spirit of high school boys. The HS dynamics and conversations and dramas and all that crap. What with most of my best friends in HS being boys, it was like taking a big fat time warp back to the olden days of 1990-1994. Really, I found it funny, but I can see how some people might have found it totally annoying. Especially non-americans. Lots of sweet references in there that just might not carry. I just have a very easily entertained sense of humour. Couldn't stop thinking about that crazy McLovin for the next 3 days. HAHAHA! "McLovin? What kind of a stupid name is that, Fogell? What, are you trying to be an Irish R&B singer?" HAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh yeah and I know one cop that DESPERATELY needs to see that movie and let's just say her name rhymes with UMBRELLA and she abides in HOUSTON!!! :D
Hustle & Flow was another typical MTV Productions piece of work, I liked it o.k. but don't know what all the hoo-ha was about the soundtrack. Probably the thing I liked best about it was that it took place in Memphis, my old stomping ground. Every time I see Memphis on a show or movie I always want to go back. ~sigh~
Got the first damn awful sunburn of the year, this weekend. My back is sooooo red right now. Made it 11 months so I guess that's saying something but now I'm in pain and I'm meant to go to yoga this afternoon and THAT'S gonna be fun.... all rolling around on the ground and stretching and....YOW! The Mr. got the same sunburn too (we were pulling weeds in the garden in our swimsuits.... brilliant work..... DOH!) so we're both miserable and all "ow! don't touch me!" good times, good times.
My dear J is officially gone. BOO HOOOOOOOOO! He has left Africa's sunny shores and just landed in the poopy old U.K. I'm going to have to find someone else to prank call and sing show tunes with.
The whole day Saturday was spent working at the BSPCA table at the annual art show. It was great fun and we brought Reggie who laid under the table in the shade and napped all day, well when he wasn't collecting pats and cuddles from every single person there. Pretty much everyone we know in town was there, and they kept bringing us drinks from the bar and slices of homemade cake so how can you call that "work"!? It was great. Held a few puppies too... one of which had a beagle face but was surely a baby terrier of some sort. Typical Botswana pavement special. Also, we finally bought art! I've been desperate to start buying some actual art to hang on the walls rather than just my brother's throw-back photos in bad mountings and beer signs and whiskey signs and....crap. We bought 3 pieces of art - one from our friend & client's wife who's an amazing photographeress, and 2 pieces of Zambian cloth wall hangings... One of those is my favourite because it's of a traditional woman with her baby tied onto her back like they do here & I love so much (that's the anti-SUV-baby stroller bitch in me).
I have planned my xmas dinner for 6. It is pretty much going to be a repeat of Thanksgiving dinner. That means turkey. What else are you meant to have for xmas? Ham? I don't like ham! But I did see Nigella cooking a christmas ham on tv the other day that looked tempting. But I haven't rehearsed one of those before so I'd be hesitant. I will also be making spiced alcoholic cider, and need to come up with a dessert. OH! OH! Brilliant idea... maybe I will make Alan be my sous chef, rather than the Mr., that way the Mr. can be busy entertaining the dutchies and I'll have an excuse to hide out for hours without them! BRILLIANT!
Most amazing thunderstorms ever over the last couple days. Granted they only last 30 minutes or so but while they're out they're priceless. I wish Steve was here to photograph them because the lightning has been like nothing else I've ever seen before, ever, and who knows if it'll ever be like this again. Friday night on our way home from my new favorite Chinese restaurant, it was literally like daylight for a good half hour. Seriously the lightning would make streaky bolts across the sky but then the heat lightning would just linger for ever afterwards, and you could see everything around you as far as the eye could see, in the middle of the night!
OW! MY BACK HURTS LIKE HELL! WHY AM I SO STUPID!!!
