My Year of Meaningful (2011)

So this is old news already but I am officially FREE!!!

Free from the shackles that have bound my brain for the last three years and culminated in completing 10 months worth of thesis-writing in 5. Assuming they don't fail it outright over yonder in the UK, you may now call me Oh Wayward Master-Master One. ~curtsey~

Re: what I finally decided to say in my Acknowledgements, it materialized as follows...
-ahem-

"ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to Mr. Jonathan W..., without whom this research would likely have been given up on and never pulled out of the black hole for which it was bound. It is only because of his willingness to help, patience, genuinely supportive and constructive input that this dissertation could be submitted. Without a doubt, there is no imaginable way I could have done it without Mr. W... as my advisor.
I also must extend much heartfelt appreciation to [The Mr.] and my colleagues at L.E. for not only helping and supporting my research, but also for leaving me alone long enough to finish it.
Many thanks to Mr. W. Yuan, Mr. E. Xing, Mr. S. Chidziba, and Mr. M. Skelton, all of whom played integral parts in the data collection phase of this endeavour and very kindly assisted me through not only participating, but helping to convey an understanding of why things happen as they do in the Construction Industry.
Finally, I am very grateful to Vicky W... and Lauren J... at the University of P.mouth EDMDL office for their reliable and rapid-response time in answering emails, re-sending files, and being generally nice people to work with over the course of this MSc programme. Their assistance has made the challenge of distance learning manageable."


I'm not letting it get too laurel-resty around here though, primarily since I can see that one of the lessons learned through all of this was that even when you THINK you can do it all, you can't. Things will suffer. Space will be made on the proverbial table of life by sweeping other similarly-worthy items off. Now I gotta pick those ones up and glue some of them back together because clearly the table of life sits on a damn hard tile floor. Like I dont even want to KNOW how bad my banjo-pickin' & piano ploinkin' skills are anymore these days, and it's clear that my diet and exercise regimen has been thoroughly compromised (you can tell by the extra 1.5kg on the scale), and the fact that The Mr. keeps making it VERY CLEAR that he feels he's running our business all by himself and it's driving him bat-assy. There's a dozen books who're getting nowhere fast on my bedside table, and 2 dozen friends on my gchat who done gave up on my ass.

BUT, hey, it's done now. The truth is that I made a decision 3 years ago to commit some time into doing something for the academic Me, and now that that's done and checked off, I can leave it alone now and do something for the other Me-s. Feels good. Hard to prioritize though, for the next step. I realize that in order to be the good wife-Me, I need to also up my game for the work-Me, because one of the best gifts I could give to The Mr. right now would be to relieve some of his burden at the office for him. I can catagorically state I am NOT looking forward to that, but hey it'll be 10x easier than what I just managed to accomplish so I gotta keep reminding myself of that, and I guess ultimately Love is helping out when & where you're needed and it's Not Always All About You.

So, with that said, I guess I gotta stop this diarizin' and write that damn report that The Mr. asked me to have done about oh, a week ago, and which the Client is currently riding his ass about not having done. This weekend was relaxing enough (friends from Joburg up for the weekend which was ok., and making cornhole beanbags with Doc & Mrs Doc which was ok, nothing exciting or interesting) so I guess it's a good time to hit the ground running now & start ticking more boxes.

Labels: school

Thoughts running through my head at the moment:

1. OMG
2. I never thought I'd ever get here
3. This can't be real
4. Surely I'm going to bomb
5. It CANT be good
6. It Cant be OVER
7. Holy shit!

I have officially "written" the whole thing. My MSc dissertation, that is. All the words are in (actually I'm nearly a thousand words OVER the limit so there's still lots of work to do) and the basic formatting has been finished, the References have been cited, put into Harvard APA style, and I THINK all my figures, tables, etc are labled accurately. I still want to spend quite a bit of time revising my conclusion & discussion because I feel like I kinda just schlepped it all in there in a fit of midnight oil burning but hey, that's cool.

Now all I have to do is write the abstract and the acknowledgements sections. Ahhhh, acknowledgements! I've been looking forward to this part for nearly a whole year. Who to thank, who to use words like "deepest gratitude" when mentioning, vs. "sincere thanks". Hee hee... this stuff is my crack.

All I know for sure is that Jonathan gets the creme de la creme of my acknowledgements. Honestly, I don't even know what that guy looks like but he's the only human being at University of P.mouth that has been even remotely supportive and constructive and helpful and basically pulled my research out of the black hole it was bound for, after that horrible experience I had during last semester with MISTER BUTTER. Fecker. I still hate that guy. He wasted a whole semester of my time for me. Thanks, asshat.

I also gotta thank the guys on the case study sites of course, but I don't want to use their real names because their input actually could reflect very badly on their organisations so maybe I'll just call them "Mister so-and-so". And then I'll have to thank The Mr. of course, and the guys at the office. Other than that, I don't want to make it a big weep-fest of insincere crap for people who didn't really do shit for me during my year of slavery so it'll probably be short and to the point. It is a freakin scientific publication after all, not an Oscar speech or a Dan Brown book.

But like I said, there's still a good chunk of work to do, just editing what's already there and then all the binding and CD writing and Fed-Exing (which is gonna cost me an arm and a leg since they want THREE BOUND COPIES. I need to get it out roughly by tuesday or wednesday - thursday at the very very very latest, and I still need to find out what the hell to do about my Ethics Form (getting it signed by my advisor, who is in the U-friggin-K) and all, but DAMN. I think I've pretty much rounded the last bend.

This week has been pretty good. I've been punishing myself physically lately, by running on sunday, doing Mrs. Doc's crazy insane workout video with her on tuesday, going to this new gym which does a lunchtime fitness class on wednesday (strangely very similar to Mrs. Doc's crazy insane workout video) and then yoga last night. All the physical activity is helping me to justify dropping out of just about every other avenue of my life at the moment (mainly work) due to the crunch-time that I"m in for school. I was PLANNING on celebrating big time with a super-happy-fun-time camping trip with us and the Docs this weekend, but Mr. Doc got bitten by a cobra on wednesday and isn't really feeling up to it, go figure.

Funny story, he was just sitting on the loo and BAM! Got this feeling that someone had just stabbed him in the shoulder blade with a knife! Some damn fool snake had crawled out of a void between pipe & wall behind the toilet and just, as I like to put it, "bumped into him with his fangs". whoopsie! But the funny thing about being an E.R. doc is that you just calmly get up from the toilet, walk to your camera and your cellphone, snap a few photos of the snake while simultaneously phoning your wife (who is on her way to the hospital for work) to turn around and come back to get you so that you can admit yourself into your own E.R. and order your own vials of antivenom and instruct your staff exactly WHOM is to be tasked with your intubation, etc etc etc. All the while, ensuring to collect your passport (and hers) to bring with you in the event that you may need to be heli-vac'ed to South Africa for emergency-emergency treatment, prior to taking a seat and sitting calmly until your ride arrives.

They had to give him NINE VIALS of anti-venom once they figured out which snake it was (thanks, photos!) at 1,000 bucks a pop (still cheaper than getting treated back home of course)and what I find very interesting is that when they drip you up with this stuff they're actually injecting you with HORSE tissue, which is how they make the antivenom - they inject horses with it, which then produce the antibodies, which then they take out & put inside you. His whole left side was pretty numb and he couldn't talk for a good half a day and of course he had to spend the night in the hospital but last night he came around while Mrs D & I were at yoga and hung out on the couch watching "The Big Lebowski" with The Mr. and eating pizza so I think it's safe to say he's surviving just fine. Some nasty looking black, dead tissue around the fang-wound, and he says he can feel gravity pulling the venom down, down, down his body so now the pain is generally around his hip area, but "should progressivly settle out sometime in the next few days". Huh. Doctors. Nuts.

Still no camping this weekend though. I think that's due to Mrs. Doc, who had to pretty much bitch-slap him into NOT going to work today. Which actually, although it breaks my heart because we had gotten the Sent.Hill campsite booked (the one with the "loo with a view" we went to a couple years ago and had rhinos walking through our campsite) and I was so looking forward to some peace and quiet and beers around the campfire, is probably a good idea because I NEED to finish this damn document up so I can get back to living life.

So I guess it might be an easy-going round of sundowners at the yacht club tonight, which it's been FOREVER since we've been there on a friday night. Then who knows what on saturday and this new monthly cooking-eating-drinking party idea that Mrs Doc dreamed up for some girls to do on sunday night that she's been planning for the last month. We'll see how that goes. I hear chicken parmesean is on the menu, so hell yeah I'll be there.

Labels: BW-general, school

It's go time! It's crunch time! It's.... it's.... shittin' bricks time!!!

So in 7 days I aim to submit my thesis. Let's see what happens.

I be nerve-ridden.

I just realized I missed a week here on ye olde blogge. So a quick run-down of the events which transpired....

Greek night last weekend was great. We got our eat on, drink on, plate-breakin' on, dance on, dress on, etc etc etc. A good time had by all. Which it better have been c'z those tickets ran 450 bucks each!! So that was an extremely fun, late night, followed by an early morning hash which came too soon, but the 8km run in 4000 degree sunshine woke me up somehow. This was followed by a braai, of course, and then home to sit around in the pool and try and cool down just a wee bit. Mission impossible.

Monday was a hell of a party at Doc & Mrs. Doc's which made Tuesday and all the days after it a little strained because well, I's tired.

Thursday was my first night back at a yoga class in over a year and then some. I had just recently gotten a tip from a fellow hasher about this new german gal in town who does (as I like to call it) "yoga with balls", which I thoroughly prefer over the more typical-to-G-city-style "Zen and the art of snoozing" type yoga that they offer around these parts. So I had phoned her up and inquired about her classes, she gave the the details and myself and Mrs Doc headed over to try her out. Well! We were the only ones there but so WHAT because it was fantastic! She also combines some nerve-stretching into her Ashtanga-style class and it was challenging and fun and strength-building and everything i look for in an hour and a half 40-buck class. We shall definitely make this a weekly thing.

Then Mrs Doc & I came back to our place where we agreed to have one glass of wine and chat to The Mr. for awhile which turned into Two (of course) and a mini-TV marathon (2 x 30min sitcoms - "Modern Family" and "Cougar Town") because she & Doc don't have TV so was curious as to what's on these days. It was lovely & relaxing even though i got to bed too late for a school night. But THAT my friend is why it's good to have good neighbours. Random acts of simple socializing that doesn't involve hiking across town and anything else complicated like designating drivers and what not.

Friday was hella fun at the Oktoberfest - totally cheap and cheesey for an Oktoberfest (well it IS the Dark Continent) but it worked. We went with Soo & Mx and left the LJJ at their place with their little'un and their babysitter. Headed up the hill to the Game Reserve where this thing was taking place (our old local watering hole from when we lived on that side of town) and got a free beer mug, a free teeshirt, and one free shot of Jagermeister. All this freeness for only 150 bucks!! HAHA! What kinda free is that? Everything else (food, drink, funny hats, etc) was pay-as-you-go. That is so BW. Anyhoo the proprietor of the restaurant/bar there is german so he had kinda taken this old german beer-hall concept and run with it. There was an oom-pa band (playing Neil Diamond and all that other party music shit) and long tables and giant 2L glasses of beer shaped like a boot. There was Eisbein and Warthog to eat and saurkraut and potato salad and all that nonsense. Doc & Mrs Doc and a whole bunch of other docs also joined us and it was fun fun fun. I was on DD duty though, so I did not indulge as much as the rest did but nevertheless being not a HUGE beer obsessive, it didn't really matter. Plus, the monthly Farmers Market was in the morning and it was gon' be HOT, so I was glad I didn't purposefully dehydrate myself.

Sat. AM found us up at 10:30 to have a go at whatever would be leftover at the market (hardly anything by that hour! those dudes move their stuff FAST) but we went with Doc & Mrs Doc and of course bumped into every human in town that we've ever known, which is always nice. Met the nice german couple who we'd had our last party at old-neighbours K&H (of up and disappearing fame)'s several months back, and they too were totally bamboozled about what the hell happened to those guys. I found out the girl, Nine, also does yoga with new amazing-yoga chick, so we'll see her again on Thursday which is nice as she is totally entertaining. I also managed to buy hundreds of bucks worth of olives and tapenades and pickled onions and ate a crepe and drank espresso and chatted & it was all fun.

Coming back there was just enough time for a jump in the pool and a 1 hour nap for the LJJ before we had to be back down the hill at 4:30 to Jac & Mar's for their kinda-late-housewarming braai and watching of the very important rugby final (which our beloved team ended up winning - wahoo!). They had also invited Doc & Mrs Doc and the 6 of us turned the evening into a rather serious eating/drinking/poker-playing late night which was a wee bit detrimental to our hashing at the stupid-early start time of 9:30 the next day. But what the hell.

Funny antecdote about having good neighbours again: The one about the halloween party that Doc & Mrs Doc were supposed to go to. So yeah, all the medical professionals were having a big halloween blow-out on saturday night that D&MrsD were fully intending on going to. They had decided on costumes and were even busy coloring in said costumes during the drinking/poker playing part of the evening at Jac & Mar's. The whole evening I had been saying to them "you're not going to that party" and they were like, "ah, we can go late, it's ok, we'll still squeeze it in". Come 10pm they still had this wacky idea they were going to go. But when you have good neighbours and you're having a good time with said good neighbours and it's so much fun that you keep accepting that extra glass of wine... come 12:30am aint nobody driving the 20minutes back into town to go to some half-over party. Oh hell no. you pour yourself another drink and play another hand of cards. Silly Doc & Mrs Doc. so much to learn.

Nonetheless their homemade silly costumes that they made didn't go to waste because we agreed to wear costumes to the hash the next day (even though it hadn't been the agenda of the hash but wtf). Which was a fine exercise in sweating out the remains of too much indulging the night before... as the sun was brutal, the temp was higher than 40C/105F and I had to run 8km. Ay chihuahua.

But it was worth it because the hosts had a giant taco fest and tequila to celebrate dia de los muertos or diablos or whatever the hell it is, after it was over and them tacos was guuuuuuud. The hostess mail-ordered them from the States apparently, and they came in a box of about 200 or something. HA!

The rest of the day I was just exhausted. The Mr. and I and LJJ came home, jumped in the pool, took a nap, and then did virtually nothing else. Nothing. I watched some catch-up on the tv from all the shows I've been missing, and we ate cheese sandwiches for dinner. I honestly could not MOVE. The Mr tried to be productive, but ultimately gave into the couch as well and we lazed around and it was great. In bed at 10:30 and zonked. the F. OUT.

So this week my objectives are to write the hell out of this damn research, dry out entirely, (at least until thursday anyway - the post-yoga glass of vino is not something to sacrifice during times like these), get to bed on time, and after the 7th of November.... move on with the rest of my life. New focus, new energy, new.... well, I'm not sure what else (damn, it's almost gonna be "new YEAR"), but here we go.

Labels: goin out, school

Here are the symptoms:


1. sudden onset of high temperature
2. extreme fatigue
3. some sneezing
4. general body aches
5. flush-ed-ness


That's about it. Whatever it is, it's the answer to how I am doing? today. yippeeeeeee.....


I hate to admit it but onset of illness aside, I have well and truly officially run out of steam. My post-holiday glow is gone, my well-restedness is nowhere to be found, I can't open my eyes earlier than the alarm anymore, patience with those around me is waning, and I just can't be bothered to put up with the all-around shyte.



-sigh-



But I suppose one good thing can be said for the past week and that is that I have managed to put text to paper and have formed the basis of a few research chapters. Bully for me.


No wait, actually it is bully for me - I mean it's something I haven't managed to do properly yet for the entirity of 2010 so there we go. Something to be happy about. Woo hoo.


12,000 words, huh?

So far I have 187+ 755+663... let's see, that's 1,605 words. Oh goodie only 10,000+ more to go. Blehhhhhhhh


This weekend was pretty fun, although admittedly I could already feel the positive energy being sucked out of my bones. Saturday night we went over to Jac&Mar's for dinner and it was all fine but we realized what a Negative Nelly that Mar can be which I suppose was kind of grating on my already-fragile state of mind. Just normal unnecessary stuff.... doesn't like the food here, doesn't like people, doesn't want to spend money on anything, doesn't like dogs, doesn't like much. It really kind of made us realize that if it wasn't for Jac being her hubster it would be a pretty ill-fitting match of people to socialize with. But what the hey, we had a nice dinner and some vino and that was that. To be honest, when Jac suggested playing poker (which normally I would be all over, seein' as I love me some card games) I even was kind of ambivalent and made up an excuse about how we had to wake up early for the Super Mountain Hash the next moring. I can assure you if it had been K&H our Belgian friends/neighbours we woulda been there til 2am at least. Social Fail on my part. :-(


Sunday the LJJ was feeling a lot better and the Hash was a lot of fun - the annual K-hill Ascent complete with Gin & Tonics at the summit and believe it or not a very serendip-ppity-doo-da-day experience for me.... this new Canadian guy (we'll call him The Pirate) was in attendence for the first time ever and as we got to talking somehow the subject of music came up and I mentioned what a lonely ol' banjo player I am these days because my only guitar-weilding companion done kicked the bucket on me (JB, whom he actually knew). Lo and behold he tells me about this blues & folk festival that he's organizing for October in a wee cow town just south of us, where all us non-conventional musician types are going to get together and jam and clinic and connect and what-what-what. I was elated!! I literally almost skipped all the way down the mountain. Hot diggity! An outlet for my pickin!!


However then it was when I realized that I don't have a band, and the only real way that I could make any progress on this "Moo-fest" as they be callin' it, is to join up on the FB site. Which I promptly did. So hopefully a bit of networking before October and I may be in luck.


For some reason playing again is weighing heavily on my mind - I think it was just the extacy of playing with the guys in the basement back home in July that awoke this corner of my brain that had been dormant since JB died. Honestly if I had a gun to my head I would have to say that it was that moment (those few hours) that defined the happiest that I have been for as long as I have been living here, which is pretty scary if you think about the fact that I'm doing next to nothing to get up and at 'em again at the moment (outside of playing with the geriatric quartet and along with my iPod)!!


I guess a little bit of that serendipitous meeting on sunday was responsible for this strange, eerie, creepy premonition that I've been living with throughout the rest of the week til now - which is that around the corner somewhere lies a band, and I'm in it. Woah. Heavy. I guess it never occurred to me to "start your own, dummy", but now it has and I'm wrestling with the idea which doesn't sit naturally with me because I'm such a viola player (read: I'm such a non-leader, more of a stage left type, more of a backgrounder, definitely NOT a singer/frontgirl/organizer) so therefore I guess I have always just waited til the dudes come to me and organize the "just for fun" screw-around sessions I have loved & lived for since I was a teenager. So it feels weird, but I see this "thing" forming in my imagination and over the past few days I have been thinking about it a lot - even coming up with a few shadows of an idea or 2 about a couple local musicians (one guitar player, one fiddle player) who I am just gingerly coming to the decision to approach with my wild & woolly "bluegrass in BW" idea. All I need is some balls.


Although I feel like rubbish, I'm trying to look forward to good stuff on the horizon. Like a couple weeks from now when we're off to Jozi to hang out with Uncle Alan and go to the GTF show. It will be kinda like his late birthday party, and we have to spend heaps of time with him whenever possible now that he's decided to piss off and hitchhike up to Sudan or wherever-the-hell starting in October for 6 months. I mean he might not survive, right!? HA! Anyhoo he's going to take me to his saturday morning hippie-yoga-in-the-park class which I am desperate for since it has been since-Lucy-left that I have been to yoga class (since her replacement is not my cup of tea). Also he is turning funny because his social circle now is quite hippie-centric after meeting all these funny friendly space-cadet girls in his yoga classes. I can't wait to meet them and see how my little antichrist brother-from-another-mother is rolling with these earth mammas. HA!


uh oh, I think my eyeballs are boiling. That can't be a good thing.


good lord I have no idea how I'm gonna make it through the Hash mismanagement meeting tonight at the B&B bar, if I feel like this now. Good thing it's my day to work from home tomorrow.


Done!

Labels: music, school

So basically I'm down in the dumps today because

a) I'm exhausted
b) I haven't had any humor therapy in weeks
c) My tutor hates my thesis proposal (thanks for telling me 1 week before I'm supposed to hand in a pre-draft)
d) I'm behind on work
e) I'm behind on my last ditch effort at Animal Peeps magazine
f) I haven't been to the gym in weeks thanks to tendonitis

However, at least the cops haven't come after me.

"The COPS?" you ask.... "Why would the cops come after you?" Well! Allow me to explain!

So it's my birthday, and we're at the hash, and it turns into a first-class SNAFU and general adventure into WTF-Land. First of all, the hares of the day set a horrible trail, which resulted in the absolute worst-case-Hash-scenario of the sun going down so that the trail can't be seen and people getting lost. There's Major Feckup 1.

Enter Major Feckup 2. Said lost people leave angry, once they get "un-lost". All this on my watch as Grand Mattress. Nobody blaming me, however, since I wasn't the hare for the day. Whew.

On to Major Feckup 3. Said run had been set from the start point of empty public car park. Making our after-run socializing just a wee bit illegally located. Now, mind you, this is a commonplace and everyday occurrence with the Hash (most of our runs are set from public places), not to mention the fact that half of G-city is ALWAYS, WITHOUT FAIL, 100% of the time, creating general drunken chaos out on the streets and public spaces of the city until the wee hours of the morning, and generally disturb the peace at all costs. What *we* do is have one bottle of water or a light beer and some social chatter, and go home. So naturally you can understand why 30 cops roll up in about 10 vehicles and bust us before any drinks are even consumed???? NOT! Whatever. I'm not one to condone breaking the law, and yes, we were in an abandoned parking lot - technically public space. So whatever. What gets the RETARDO OF THE YEAR award however, is that they rolled up, confiscated our very expensive coolerboxes full of soft drinks, water, and beer, and "asked" everyone to come down to the cop shop. And I am not sarcastically using the word "asked". Literally. ASKED. So obviously as part of the Mismanagement team, The Mr. and I decided (felt obligated) that we better accompany the 10 or so devout members that decided to round up a posse and head down to the cop shop to get our cooler boxes back. Obviously no one was concerned about getting the book thrown at us BECAUSE NO ONE HAD EVEN BEGUN DRINKING YET when the fuzz arrived! Therefore obviously no one could get in trouble for drinking. (In BW law, it is not illegal to have a coolerbox full of beer sitting out in a parking lot. The illegal part is when you drink it. If these fools were at least 10% smart they would've at least waited til someone cracked a damn beer open! Nevermind the fact that 10metres away there was some sort of drunken brawl going on in another parking lot between CLEARLY DRUNKEN, BEER-DRINKING LOCAL GUYS). Whatever. Knowing we were all 100% innocent, a gaggle of us decided there was a better chance of getting our stuff back if a large number of us showed up at the cop shop OF OUR OWN VOILITION to sort the shizzle out.

Not to be. They wanted our personal details (why?) and wanted us to all sign guilty forms (why?) and wanted us to all cooperate in a full-scale investigation (of WHAT?) blah blah blah. Obviously none of us were going to do that crap, and spent the rest of the night in the station arguing with people who didn't have a damn clue about the law or how to do their copping. What they WANTED was to bust a bunch of white folk and confiscate a bunch of drinks so they could have a full blown piss-up after they knocked off for the evening. Welcome to the 3rd world. Feckers.

Finally we all just gave them some random personal info (you can guess yourself if any of it was factual or not) and signed a bunch of benign crap and left. Happy freakin b-day to me! Not to mention I've got LJJ here the whole time and now it's what - 2 hours past her bedtime? And a freakin wet diaper? Anyway. Apparently no one has been followed up on, to date, so I guess someone from the actual super-ranks finally talked some sense into the 14-year-old officers in question the next day. What I imagine went something like "was anyone ACTUALLY drinking?" and "do you have any PROOF?" and "you realize there are robberies and domestic assaults going on right now?" or whatever to that effect, and hopefully that's the end of it.

Freakin circus.

In other (positive) news, I didn't hear anything else from the Australian Immigration Nazis, which I take as a good sign that LJJ will most likely get her 2-week-visitors visa. Simple friggin pleasures, like.

Labels: HHH, school

AAGHHHH!!!

My stupid Research Methods tutor hates my project proposal and has given me about 0.0009% constructive criticism on it in my project feedback form which now I have to use to make it right, BEFORE the 8th of December.

ASSHAT!

I am just really, really annoyed.  What annoys me the most is that out of all the 2 years worth of classes that I have taken in this degree programme, I have never had any problems with tutors, and never had any issues with getting bad feedback on a draft assignment.  Never.  I always
a) write my draft on time
b) submit it for review (you get 1 chance for review per semester/per course)
c) receive (in a timely manner) the tutor's comments
d) incorporate them and make changes
e) submit final draft by deadline
f) get a pretty damn good result for the effort.

Now, in the ONE class that I have serious issues with understanding and designing a project for, I end up with
a) tutor who hates my idea
b) gives me my feedback nearly 2 whole weeks late
c) loses one of my assignment drafts altogether
d) gives me mumbo-jumbo nonsense back as "feedback" that I can't even understand!!!!

I am really stressed now, and I'm going to have to
a) choose an entirely different topic and re-write my entire proposal (which I won't be allowed to submit for feedback since we only get one go per semester/per project, and just hope it turns out better than this one, or
b) stick to my guns and just keep shooting them blindly in the dark at nothing, but with gusto, and hope for the best when I turn it in in December??!?!?!

CRAP!  BOLLOCKS!  CRAPOLLOCKS!!!

I need to talk to a professional researcher fast.  I would consider talking to my tutor but of course as I mentioned before, SOMEHOW for this ONE CLASS I managed to get La Maestra Idiota as my tutor and I am almost afraid to even phone her as she might squeal like a pig at me and shoot flaming daggers of wild boar fangs into my ear over the phone line.   AAGGGHHHHHHH!!!!

Right now I am just channelling Elliot on Scrubs, every 2 minutes:  FRICK!  FRICK FRICK FRICK FRICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In happier news though, we are the proud new owners of an awesome 2002 Harley Davidson Night Train model Sportster which I can not WAIT to ride except it needs a few new parts first and some fixing up which we'll probably have to have done over the border.  But exciting nonetheless.

AND in the "LIFESTYLE" department, I have finally found 2 places that are non-malaria and IN the country, where we can go spend a few days and blow a few grand on lazing in decadance and tranquility. The only problem is that I have to get this damn semester over with, which means effectively after the 11th of December, this city is going to be eating my dust.  Hot diggity!

Labels: aggro, school

Why does my FIL have to be such a $%&#!???

I feel sorry for The Mr. because he has to entertain these people more than I do, and by that I mean they basically just want to talk to him and fawn over him and be served by him and have all their questions entertained by him... kinda lets me off the hook, but by the same token, that's just not how we normally roll. It's hard. Know what else is hard? Know-it-alls and over-analysers, and people who take vacations to english-speaking countries and then proceed to speak to Botswana-born waitresses, etc, in european languages. riiiiiiiiiight. lemme know how that works for you.

The longer I'm around my MIL, the more I can appreciate the person that she is, the more that I can have sympathy for her and feel sensitive to even the things she does that make me want to throttle something/someone.

I suppose in the spirit of the QSI I should stop right there and move on with my life, but can I just say one big, private

AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

while I'm here? I won't feel sorry for myself. I will just persevere!!!

OK, with that out of the way...

I am struggling to finish this giant report at work. It's been weighing on my soul for so long now, and I'm kind of on the downward slope, but that just makes it even harder to finish. Staying at home and working from there a few days last week and the one before helped a bit, because let's face it, I'm way more productive outside of the office. But I still have that "just barely keeping up" feeling in general. Again we're back to the inherent fact that I DONT LIKE MY JOB, but yes, I know I like it MORE when I'm being diligent and getting things done. And listening to music and turning off the internet, etc. None of which I've been doing lately (well, the music because I currently need to be WRITING, which I can't do at the same time) because I'm out of my inspiration-rut. When I find myself uninspired about work, it's normally because I've hit a rough patch where I'm distracted and not performing well.

I also need to dig my heels into my studies. I have 2 assignments that I havent even started and I neeeeeeeeeeed tooooooo.

Why am I such a slacker!!?? I'll tell ya why:

1. Moving
2. New toy
3. Tired
4. Inlaws
5. Other visitors
6. Life

I have a relaxing koi pond on my iPhone. WT....????

OK right so the inlaws got put on a plane yesterday to go up to the Chobe/Vic Falls for a week. So the next 4 days are "alone time" for me and The Mr. [huge sigh of relief]. Tonight after climbing K-hill and towelling off, we will go have a salad or something light at M&B and then go see "He's Just Not That Into You". Yea! Boston Legal is over now, so no reason to not use Monday Nights to our advantage :) They're back (the ILs) on friday. At which point we will be going away for the weekend together. Have mercy it better be one of those last-minute-luxury-lodge deals so at least I feel like I'm getting something out of it. Have mercy, again I say have mercy.

Labels: QSI, school, work

Summer is here and it's hottttttttttttt.

This weekend was a blur but not bad at all. Friday me and the Mr. went to this TR (t is for tara, r is for rokpa) lecture given by a visiting guru from Harare. They're trying to get a group together in G-city and I'm very interested in it but not sure if I even have the time or could religiously make the time over the next couple years to write down every single memory in my head going back from now til I was 1 y.o., then back up to the present, and back down again. I totally appreciate it as a therapy and how it's supposed to allow you to clarify blame and release all the anger and turmoil from your life, but they reckon 3 hours per week is suitable to get everything written down, and at the moment I'm struggling to get in 3 hours of week into studying for my current semester of my course! And then there's the 3 hours that I should be putting into the Animal People newsletter and committee, and then there's the 3 hours (x2) AT LEAST that I need to devote to the gym spread over the week, not to mention if you combine my Monday yoga classes with the few dog walks we get per week, well that's about 3 hours too, actually more if you count the very limited time I can even make for myself to pick around on the banjo every now and then, all of which is desperately necessary for my sanity. WHERE do people get "just an extra 3 hours" a week??? I would love to know where that shop is.

So anyway the jury is still out on whether or not I'm going to take it up, but I'm considering it. The Mr., on the other hand, was all like "ohhhh helllllllll nooooooo" but at least he was open minded enough to join me on friday night. He didn't come to the saturday clinic with me though. Surprise!

These big projects are big. They are big and they are busy. Love working with Dave but man he is one high-maintenance consultant. It's all for the best though, I want both of these jobs to be good ones, quality. And I don't want the DEA all over my back once they're turned in - so I'm putting some effort in.

The Mr. made sweet and sour pork from scratch, and fried rice, last night and it was so nice. I was sitting there at the dining room table slaving away ALLLL DAYYY on my assignment and he just left me alone and catered to my every whim (well, if you call a couple glasses of water my "every whim") and cooked lunch AND dinner. This assignment is extremely challenging, mainly because I don't understand part 2 of the essay. hmmmm...

I am so looking forward to Xmas.... ahhhhhhhh.

Labels: BW-general, goin out, school, stress management

Last Saturday night was the big Spring Party at the Yacht Club. It was fun. We went, we ate, we drank, we boogied, and watched the veld fires spread across the night sky over the dam.


Wednesday The Mr.'s birthday was a great success. I leaked his presents to him at decent intervals throughout the day, and he was happy with them all. Especially the new gee-tar that he's been promised since xmas 2 years ago!


Dinner was fun. But I hate rectangular tables. So hard to converse, it's like if you sit next to peeps A, B, and C, you can forget about ever hearing anything from X, Y, and Z throughout the night unless you come with a bull horn. Here's a bad photo of the A,B,C end of the table:


Anyway, that sneaky girl of mine, Ubs, got the waiters out to sing for him after dinner. The funny part was that they came out clapping and chanting and saying "AHNYO CHEH! AHNYO CHEH!" and we had no idea what it was that they were saying because of the acoustics (and the variety of different waiter accents) so the Mr. just sat there clueless and they had to keep chanting it for like 50 times straight - finally P, or whoever it was goes "OH they're telling you to stand on your chair!!" So finally he gets up on his chair and THEN they proceeded to sing happy birthday. It was funny. And they gave him tiramisu:

AHNYO CHEH!!:

This week has been full of going out and not so full of studying. My next semester for my course started on the 1st of september and so far i've only managed to read 68 pages. blehhhh. I have learned one thing, though: Toxicology bores the bejeezus out of me.

So yeah, Monday was yoga as usual, Tuesday gym, Wednesday the birthday dinner, then last night a big "thank you" drinks & braai for the Animal People volunteers that helped out at our big open day a couple weeks ago. I took some photos of the shelter between drinks and nibbles.


Troublemaker Billy:



This guy always jumps up on cars and then stands on their roofs and proceeds to jump up on top of the carport. However, the cars then eventually drive away and he's left stranded. Us committee members have no sympathy, and let him stay there. Actually about 8:30pm last night in the dark, Jenny finally gave in and moved her own car underneath him so he could get down.


Bunny & Guinea-Pig Land:

Eric showing off my favourite little guy: "The One Who Got His Ears Munched":

And finally, it is indeed bushfire/veld fire season. Since last weekend every night there's a massive orange glow on the horizon which stretches as far as the eye can see. Very upsetting. Especially last night when it was so close to my neighbourhood that I could see individual smoke plumes and flames from my kitchen window....

Labels: animal peeps, goin out, photos, school, The Mr.