Thursday, April 30, 2009

Kink

Ah what a delightful evening of caberet-esque singing, dance, entertainment and food. Kink Bar pulled off a wonderfully enchanting evening in a very sophisticated and sexy setting, it was very different from your usual Cape Town scene; as Kink decided to hold something refreshingly special for their friends and supporters.

Word on the street is that Kink will be extending and providing food lovers with a new fabulous, fine-dining spot. Knowing the people initiating this new exciting venture and being an avid foodie, I'll be sure to be one of their biggest supporters.

I was very close to spending my long weekend in Durban; staying on the beach in Umhlanga, surfing in warm water and hanging out with the Fox and Frank (two friends whose real identities shall remain anonymous). But unfortunately I could not make it due to my being late in booking affordable tickets. The tardiness however, was probably subject to the fact that I was only convinced to go on the trip near midnight of the night before the trip... while in a mildly inebreiated state.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Don't Be Alarmed

I find that every once in a while you need to change the tone of your morning alarm, becuase you get so used to it that you begin to sleep right through it. I've become more and more accustomed to mine and find it exceedingly difficult to wake up.

I decided I would change my alarm tone, the trick is that you can't have something too loud or too abrupt otherwise you'll wake up with a heart attack, but it needs to be vibey enough so that it has enough of an impact to get you out of bed. I now have a cool Brazilian song, with a delightful songstress, singing Com VocĂȘ (that means "with you" so I'm told) to help me up.

Owing to the new tone, I was able to make an early gym session. It's been a while since I've been able to haul myself up, early enough, to get one of those in. I had an epiphany while I was at gym; and thought that it would be great for tonight's blog I also remembered that it would have been cool to have a Moleskine notebook to write down my idea so I wouldn't forget what it was. No prizes for guessing that I didn't have a Moleskine with me at the time and that I've also subsequently forgotten the epiphany... oh well, will scribe it if I remember.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

School Yard Bully

I bumped into someone I knew at Caprice on Sunday evening, someone that I've known from way back when I was still living in East London. I thought it would be a fantastic opportunity to strike up a conversation and reminisce about the good old days. What I didn't realize was, what seemed good to me was not so great for her.

You see, apparently I was a bully...can you believe it? Me? A bully? It seems utterly absurd that I could ever be such a thing. Firstly, I argued I was way too small to ever bully anyone and secondly I remember being a really sensitive, caring kid who was too compassionate to hurt another living soul. After all, I myself, was the victim of countless acts of bullying and would never want to subject anyone else to its terror.

But alas she began to recount and revealed my horrid deed. Apparently in the 5th Grade or Standard 3 as we called it back then (South Africa only converted to the Grade system half way through my schooling career) I used to sit next to her in class and one day as she got up to stand; I, the devilish perpetrator allegedly pulled the seat out from underneath her; so that when she sat down again, she would find nothing to break her fall except the unforgiving floor!

I defended that it couldn't have been me, that it must have been someone else. But as I tried to deny the accusations, she sternly states "No, it was you." She says she has since forgiven me, but gosh, after fifteen years she still remembers... I must have been the source of much resentment.

The once perfectly innocent image of myself is now crushed; never in a million years would I conceive to having done such a cruel thing. I've caught up with many other people from that era and they've all recalled the same thing, that they could not have met a sweeter kid. How? Why then, did I find the need to be malicious to her? Perhaps it was the act of some stupid school boy crush? Whatever the reason - I'm truly sorry. Please take this as my formal apology, I am an ass and if it serves as any consolation I live with the guilt that I was a bully for the rest of my life...Oh the shame!

Monday, April 27, 2009

Ain't No One Normal No More...

What I've recently realized is that there are no "normal" people... "Normal" I've come to understand is a relative term. What's normal to you, may not be normal to me and I find myself all to often meeting people and asking myself "Am I the only normal person left in the world?" The truth is that we're all abnormal. I may not realize it but I'm probably pretty strange to most people myself.

You'll find that the people you consider normal are just normal because they are similar to you; either through interests, moral values or something else like proximity and culture. But these pockets of pseudo normal people are most surely strange to some other people.

Take a very simple thing like eating beef. I love beef, but to some people, like say my grandmother there is nothing in the world that could be more morally disturbing, growing up in the East where cows are revered and treated like members of the family, she considers eating them completely disgusting. It would be equivalent of someone here in the West killing and eating a puppy...

Even with a simple thing like just eating beef, one can easily see how other actions could be taken as being offensive to others. Considering that we are all individuals raised by families with slightly different values, it's not difficult to believe that something that one does could be alien to someone else. Normal means nothing. I'm abnormal, an individual and I have come to accept that.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Movie Mania

I love Sundays, especially if the Monday after is a public Holiday. It gives me an excuse to sleep in late without feeling guilty at all; after all if the day is wasted, I still have an entire day the next day to get things done.

I seldom watch DVDs these days, but when I do I watch a lot of them,(I tend to only operate in extremes it seems) - I rented out four DVDs from the DVD store and somehow got through them all...

Parcel Parcel

I’ve been harbouring a care package from Josephine’s sister in Denmark to give to someone here in South Africa. I've had it for over a month now and finally delivered it. The reason it took me so long to get it to the intended recipient was because she doesn't actually live in Cape Town. So not only did I have to wait for her to be in town, but I also had to find some time out of my busy schedule.

During this entire period I’ve been wondering with great curiosity as to what exactly was in it. Due to the size and shape of the parcel it could have been anything, luckily there were no ticking noises otherwise I might have inferred a bomb. I had to endure a lot of self restraint not to open it, but in the end I was successful. I am proud.

The task of delivery was easier than expected. I’m not sure why, but my imagination had built up a scenario where I would be sitting at a coffee store waiting for her, but before intercepted the package, the police would arrive and try to arrest me for some dodgy dealings. I would however resist and run; the next thing a car chase would ensue. Eventually, I would have been cornered; but I would stand my ground and start a gun fight…

Seriously though, I had no idea who the person was or what she looked like, only that her name was Ilse and that I had to meet up with her at a certain time and place. As I waited anxiously at the coffee store, staring at every passer by who could have potentially been her, she finally revealed herself and I was able to make the drop with relative ease. I’m sure that package was just some girlie stuff; but if any one asks, I was delivering something of great importance, something that could perhaps have saved the entire human race even. I like the latter version way better...

Friday, April 24, 2009

Another Long Weekend

Woohoo! Another long weekend! It seems as if April is littered with them, perhaps making it the least productive month, in South Africa; besides the end of the year, during all the Yule Tide madness of course.

If I were president I would seriously just write the entire month off...With one holiday here and another one there; it just disrupts momentum and causes more incurred expenses than anything else. Our country seriously has a lot of public holidays. Actually I heard of a place once, I think it was near Mexico, that celebrated every public holiday held by all other countries around the world. I think if I were president I would make that the law!

Don't you regret me not running for president now?

Anyways, apparently it's going to be a relaxing one, as our good friend Xavier, the Frenchman has sworn off any debaucharous behaviour, although this has yet to be seen as crazy Frenchmen can't be trusted...

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Almost There

Almost there, almost done with my goal. I must admit that I've been struggling to come up with things to write recently. There's only 12 more days before I reach the end of my year long journey and I'm in serious need to start thinking, so I can end off with something cool. Lets hope I break this spell of writers block...

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Voting Day

My idea to wake up really early to vote was thwarted only by my, having a late night watching Gazelle perform at the Assembly last night. What a creative act; their music seamlessly fuses different genres to create a mix of funk, disco,electro-house and African contemporary. Gazelle is exciting, fun and best of all they have a positive message behind their music. If anything, they definitely sent out some good vibrations to get me in the mood to wake up early and stand in a long queue at the voting polls.

As I stood in the line to make my mark in favour of the countries future, I was quite pleasantly impressed with not only the efficient experience; but also the number of young people getting involved to vote, in comparison with the last elections. With the rise of technology, I think that the Twitters, Facebooks, MySpaces, blogs and other social networking tools have helped to create awareness amongst the younger generation and have helped stir them to take action.

Obama’s campaign management in the States apparently saw the value of these new tools and word on the street is that they did well to take advantage of this and trigger the youth vote. If I were a politician, I would take heed and dedicate some resources to campaign through online and youth channels.

I digress, today is a big day and deterministically the decisions made will ultimately affect the countries future: for better or for worse. Cause and effect, if you will; lets hope that the general population took some time to think about why, what and who they were voting for rather than just following a popular trend.

To be honest I’m not so concerned about who people vote for, but more so the reason. Confidently, after seeing so many youths involved, I feel that the traditional streak of apathy in this South Africa has been broken and I am quite optimistic that the future of our county’s fate will be more secure.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

A Country Will Decide

Voting Day is only a day away, with bated breath the country waits before they can cast their decision to see who will be the next president. With so much relying on tomorrow's event, it seems almost absurd that people would take their right to vote likely. But sadly, I still witness people who are too apathetic to make an effort.

I really hope that all who have registered turn up and help the country reach an important outcome...

Monday, April 20, 2009

So Far So Good

Skyrove is a freaking lifesaver. Since discontinuing my 3G account with Vodacom, I've been playing internet hermit; which has made posting to my blog a complete logistical nightmare. Not only have I been needing to find time to write my entries, I've also had to find time to scurry around looking for an internet connection...I felt like that animated squirrel, Scrat from Ice Age, desperately running around looking for nuts.

However, I recently noticed that a new wireless connection popped up in my area, in the form of my now saviour, Skyrove. The process was very easy, I simply connected to the wireless connection, purchased some online credit and was ready to go. It worked out to be quite cost effective as well; I think I received just over 600MB for R200 and have been surfing the net with decent speeds ever since. The coolest thing about Skyrove though; is that you can connect to the internet wherever there is a Skyrove hotpsot and unlike some other providers don't have to worry about your MBs/credits being reset at the end of the month.

Things at Global Vision, like that popular 80's rock song, is "So Far So Good". The work is very interesting, and the atmosphere, amongst tight deadlines, is pretty relaxed. Ernst and I even decided that we were going to bring our guitars in to work, so that we could play in the chill room during our lunch breaks. The chill room is really sweet and is not like any other typical meeting room. It has giant bean bags littered across the floor and allows employees to take a load off and just relax.

Did I also mention that the office has organized some people to come in to give message sessions to worn out workers tomorrow...hmmm I could get used to this.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

A Season for All Things

It seems like over night, winter has hit Cape Town. It’s like clockwork, as soon as all the foreigners leave to go home to their respective countries; the bad weather rolls on in. It’s been raining here for the past few days and the weather is expected to remain gloomy for the next couple going forward.

It’s certainly not a bad thing. I’m feeling a little worn out from all the summer socializing and wouldn’t mind hibernating for a little while. Summers in Cape Town are meant to be social, but the Winters are here for one to take a break and recharge. It doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything to do, but the things you do in winter are different, cozier, more intimate if you will. It’s the perfect time to cook curries and stews, invite some people over and chat over a cup of coffee.

I believe that there's a saying "a season for all things..." and I must admit I tend to think it's quite true. I think if I had to live summer the whole year round, I would go crazy. I’m glad its winter and can’t wait to chill out a bit, don some cool winter sweats and perhaps cuddle up in front of a roaring fire. Anyone up for a cuddle?

The Claw

I have a tendency to go a little overboard with silly things. I managed to spend 50 bucks to try win something that must have cost only a maximum of 10 bucks to produce. Yes, that’s right I went to a games center this afternoon and to pay for my sins I got addicted to the claw game.

You’ve all seen the claw game before, it’s that machine that you find at game centers and carnivals, with the claw and merchandise inside. One maneuvers the claw using a joystick and positions it over a selected item; pushes a button and watches as the claw swoops down in attempt to pull out a teddy bear or something equally useless.

My friend convinced me to give it a whirl, being incredibly astute at computer and video games I figured it wouldn’t be all that difficult. After only a few tries I realized that it was going to be a challenge, but I felt determined to beat the game and win something at least. It wasn’t about actually liking any of the items in the machine anymore - it was about my ego - it was about winning.

After some failed attempts and much frustration, the claw finally hooked onto something… Great success! I now have a pink teddy, which I didn’t really want in the first place, sitting on my bed, leering at me, reminding me of my claw addiction…

Friday, April 17, 2009

Obz

I haven't ventured into Obz in quite a long time. Obz is the more studenty area of Cape Town. Wang and I went to check out Gravity Wins Again, a mutual friend of our's band.

I've forgotten what it's like to be a student, but seems like not much has changed. Besides having to study as an extra-mural activity; watching bands and drinking copious amounts of liquor are still one of the main priorities.

Actually I don't think much has changed since entering the "real" world. The bars one goes to just become a little more expensive and the music becomes a little bit more commercial but the priorities seem to be pretty much the same...

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Visitor!

Awesome my BFF Bryan arrives today and is crashing on my couch for the weekend. Apparently he is here for his cousin's wedding, but I'm going to assume that he is actually here to visit me, so that we can cause city wide mayhem and have buckets o' fun...

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Pork Belly - A Commodity

In case you wondering what I was too busy with yesterday, so as not to write a proper entry, then wonder no more...

Besides being really busy with legitimate work, some of the busyness may have been attributed to some mild dicking around on my behalf. For example do you know that Pork Belly is an actual commodity that's traded on the Stock Exchange? Why on earth would Pork Belly be a commodity?

When someone told me this yesterday I scoffed in disbelief, however after some research: apparently there actually is a serious demand for the stuff, so big in fact, that it is a traded commodity! Now that's food for thought!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Busy

Too busy to write a proper entry for the days account...unfortunately just busy, not really interesting. Till tomorrow.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Tribute to the Best Worst Dog Ever

Inspired after watching the movie Marley and Me, I decided to pay tribute to my own terror dog, Lucky, the Border Collie.

Most people have owned a dog at some point in their lives and I'm certain that they have also, at some stage, thought to themselves that their dog was the worst behaved dog ever. Well with Lucky, this was surely not far from the truth.

Lucky was the biggest pup in his litter and as time passed the trend of being big continued, he grew to the size of a frisky German Shepherd. Undoubtedly, he was one of the biggest Border Collies I've ever encountered. Even the local veterinarian was impressed with his size.

He's stature was only equaled by his affinity to do no good. I remember when I was younger, that I didn't own a single item of clothing that didn't have some sort of hole in it, due to Lucky's incessant jumping up on people and his need to play tug-of-war with anything wearable. I had ripped shirts, ripped denims (which were luckily in fashion at the time), ripped jackets and even some pretty mangled shoes.

On several occasions my mom wanted to give Lucky away - once owing to him destroying a lounge suite and another time with him ripping up the interior of my mom's BMW.

It's not like we didn't try to discipline him. We tried everything, from all the instructions that we had learnt in books written by well-known dog physiologists, to sending him to obedience school. Not even obedience school could break his bad behaviour and after only a few lessons he decided that he had enough, nipped the instructor on the hand and his expulsion was immanent.

Just to illustrate another clear example of defiance, I often took him for walks on a leash only to have him steal it away from me and have him, happily walk himself around - with leash in mouth. Lucky was his own master, and he did what he pleased. We thus had no choice but to put up with his mischievousness and deal with his misbehaviour. I’m certain the fact that he was the biggest of his litter, had something to do with him thinking that he was the Alpha Male of our pack and thus had a problem with us giving him authority.

Despite all this, we loved Lucky. He was a loyal dog and was always there for us. He was a terrific companion, a dutiful watchdog, who unfoiled at least two break ins at our Port Elizabeth home.

And when he fell ill and had to be put down; there was not a family member who didn’t have a tear in their eye. Its amazing how close you can get to dog. They develop their own personalities, their own little quirks and before you know it they’re no longer pets they’re members of the family.

RIP Lucky.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Sleeping Beauty

I've been sleeping a lot since coming home to PE. I'm pretty certain it's correlated with the amount of food and chocolate eggs I have been eating; because every time after a meal, I feel sluggish and need a "quick" lie down.

After every "quick" lie down, some hours pass and before I know it the day is over. The time certainly has flown while being back at home. I've done nothing except for eating and sleeping - It's been great! Hopefully now I'll be well rested and be recharged when I get back to Cape Town.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Easter Weekend

I woke up this morning stoked that the wind was blowing offshore and was amping for a surf. My memory failed me though and I forget that although, the surf is sometimes killer in PE, there is often a massive lull and the waves are... well, non-existent. I drove around the PE beachfront looking for a wave and found nothing; so I thought I'd be more adventurous and see if there was anything in the Reserve and Around the Corner.

Most of the surfing in PE is done in the Bay area, as the quality of waves there, in my opinion, are better; but with that said it's also usually smaller as well. The more die hard surfers will look outside of the Bay where the waves can often be two to three times bigger. Sadly, as I ventured - I still found nothing.

After having no luck I got in touch with my old friend, Ryan who is also in town for the Easter weekend, from Pretoria. We went to a spot called Vovo Telo, where I was quite pleasantly surprised by the quality of coffee and the food fare on offer. Not to put PE down, but the coffee stores here, are often pretty rubbish; with cappuccinos boasting horrendous foam and a terribly burnt after taste. The coffee at this Central establishment was decent - not amazing; but passable even for my coffee snobbery. The pizza I had though was excellent.

While there I bumped into some of my other friends from Cape Town, also visiting home for the holidays. Okay enough writing, there's more eating to be done; since coming back, my mom won't stop feeding me.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Airtraffic control

As far as airports are concerned I'm not a big fan. Today my hate for them has been further fuelled.

Cape Town airport is undergoing renovations in anticipation for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. As one can imagine, with all the work going on there should obviously be some disruptions.

Parking for instance was a nightmare. Upon arrival many of the roads and slipways had been blocked off due to construction and I found myself driving around in circles being confused due to all the detours. It's understandable, but still highly inconvenient.

The restrooms too were not ideal and were temporarily built using makeshift materials. To be honest I don't think the rest rooms were even part of the building at all and it seemed to have been erected as an extension, on flimsy stilts. If the airport was going for an authentic "aeroplane" feel then they did well to achieve this, because as I stood by the urinal to do my business; I could swear that I was flying and was even convinced that I felt some turbulence.

Lastly, there was a massive wait to board our flight. The reason being that one of the incompetent incumbents at the airline I was flying on, had overbooked the plane by one passenger. Unfortunately we, the passengers, were asked if one of us would volunteer and relinquish our place on the plane. The kind martyr who stayed behind was given many words of appreciation as no one else was ready to give up their seats.

My overall impression of airports have thus taken a further slump. Unless the experience on my return flight is filled with glorious satisfaction, it will stay in this position, at an all time low.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend is upon us! Off to good ol' PE tomorrow. Going back there is like travelling back in time. Nothing really changes and there really isn't anything to do. Doing nothing may be exactly what I need...

Politics Smolitics

I've been hearing a lot of topics regarding politics being raised in recent conversations. Firstly, the whole Dalai Lama issue, about how he was refused entry into South Africa due to China's provocation and secondly of Jacob Zuma's charges being dropped.

With regards to the Dalai Lama, I don't find China's policy surprising at all and honestly being of Taiwanese descent I can relate to it. But honestly I don't understand why the huge pharoar, at least why this time? Taiwan has been subjected to the same manipulative tactics for decades, with China vetoing Taiwan from the United Nations and in particular denying them the right to be seen as an independent state.

The Chinese still view Taiwan as a rogue province and have convinced the rest of the west of the same thing, yet Taiwan has been self governed and has had its own political system for over 50 years. China does this because they want Taiwan. China wants Taiwan even though Taiwan is only a tiny island; because, although perhaps less so than a decade ago (remember when everything was made in Taiwan), Taiwan are still considered an economic powerhouse.

China really has no ownership of Taiwan, so it makes threats and bullies other countries into relinquishing trade with Taiwan in hopes that Taiwan will surrender and become part of China. China convinced South Africa to sever ties with Taiwan in the early 21st century, even though Taiwan was amongst South Africa's biggest trade partners in the 90s. What I don't understand is, why I didn't see nearly as much protest when that happened as I do now with the refusal of the Dalai Lama to enter our country. Is one man really more important than an entire nation? So as you can see China's tactics are not new, and South Africa have again fallen as a pawn to the big red rising star of the East, only this time with more press.

At least the United States support Taiwan and have unequivocally stated that they would go to war with China should they ever try to take Taiwan by force... The situation on that side of the world is as volatile as anywhere else, including the Middle East; but I love how ignorant the average South African is about happenings on that side of the world. I sat listening to a painful conversation between two apparent experts of the topic in the gym, yammering on, with authority mind you, with one gentleman giving a very distorted version of what I've described above and painstakingly mistaking Taiwan for Thailand...

With Zuma, I've realized for a while now that his ascent to presidency is inevitable. The ANC want this to happen and so as it has been written; so shall it be done and again just like China's tactics, his charges being dropped comes as no surprise.

It does however surprise me, how surprised most other people are. I'm not a massive Zuma fan, but I have a feeling that a lot of people are blowing his incompetency out of proportion, my view with regards to Zuma is at least he can't be worse than Bush...and who knows perhaps he'll surprise a folk or two.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Island Dreaming

A small tropical island, catching fish and picking fruit for food, surfing quality waves all day, lying on a hammock gazing at stars, with no one around, no social obligations, no responsibilities, no cell phone calls, no text messages, no organizing this and that, no listening to other peoples qualms and complaints, no worrying about paying bills, no clutter, no having to interpret and “playing” the opposite sex, no entertaining, no deep and meaningful conversation, no goddamn complications - Nothing.

Just me, myself, my own thoughts and some chill time, that’s what I really, really want right now. I'm tired, very tired, worn out from all the hustle and bustle - I woke up and realized that I have almost every day planned for the next two weeks - planned out almost down to the minute. This made me even more tired. I guess there is some truth to the saying "no rest for the weary".

Monday, April 6, 2009

Pet Peeve

One of my greatest pet peeves about cooking, is the smell that embeds itself to your hands after chopping onions! Arggghhh I hate it, I just hate it!

No matter how much hand soap I use to wash my hands, I just can't get rid of the stench. Every time I cover my mouth to sneeze or yawn; there it is, I get a whiff of a pungent, onion smell.

I wonder if it is really prominent or if it is just localized to me? Do people around me smell it too? Or is it me being paranoid and something that you really have to concentrate on to take notice of...

I mean you can certainly tell when someone has eaten garlic. Often, when you catch someone in the office, you'll label the offender "Garlic Breath". I wonder if it's the same with chopping onions? "Oh look! There goes Onion Hands - That Benny is always chopping onions"...

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Laying Low

When you become used to socializing, laying low and taking a weekend off on the couch can become really difficult. I mean the act itself isn't too hard, in fact lying on the couch is pretty darn easy.

But the problem is, there's always this nagging feeling in the back of your mind that you're missing out on something. Trying to suppress the urge to be out there and in the loop is the difficult part.

I spent the whole weekend fighting it, I knew the best thing to do was to avoid the social scene and hide indoors; but deep inside I wanted to sneak out and take a look see as to what was going on in the outside world. It was a difficult battle, but in the end I think I won. I have a whole stack of watched DVDs to prove my victory.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Mos Def

Alejandro and I were chilling out at a coffee spot one day and struck up a conversation with an American guy sitting next to us. When we eventually asked what he was doing here in Cape Town he said he was in town to do a show, because he was a hip hop artist.

Not being big into the hip hop scene, we didn't really know who he was; and never in a million years did we think he was a big international act. He just seemed like your average ordinary Joe: soft spoken and down to earth. After a few more coffees and some more chatting, we left and didn't think anything more of it.

Today someone mentioned that Mos Def was playing at the Cape Town Jazz festival, after putting two and two together and checking out what he looks like on the internet, turns out the guy we were having coffee with was Mos himself.

I love it! It's awesome how a successful rapper/actor like Mos can be so receptive to chatting to random strangers. I guess at the end of the day stars are just people too, like you and me; regardless of how untouchable we think they may be.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Done!

First week at my new work, done! And already I'm starting to feel like I'm part of the furniture, the other team members have welcomed me with open arms and kindly provided me with the important task of making coffee for everyone - I'm just kidding, not coffee. Tea...

A few of the lads and I had a boy's only night at Xav's flat. I think it worth mentioning that we opened up a bottle of 1994 Meerlust Sauvignon Blanc, originally from my Dad's private collection.

When my dad, gave that bottle to me - he said I should I should give it to someone who would really appreciate it. Appreciated it was, as I've never seen a Frenchmen so happy, he was practically glowing (I know I was - from the tannins) just after a few sips. I think he said something about it being one of the best wines he ever had.

Anyways the week is done! I can't wait to kick back a bit.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Auto Pilot Strikes Again

Seems like I'm not the only one who suffers from the Auto Pilot syndrome. I climbed into the car with Ernst a little earlier to go hunt for some lunch. The idea was to go to a Woolies near by and get something to eat.

But without realizing it, we ended up at the Waterfront. Ernst asked in astonishment "Dude, did we just drive to the Waterfront?"

The Waterfront isn't too far away, but it certainly isn't the closest to our office either. I think because we got so caught up chatting, his reflexes kicked in and Ernst's subconscious navigated us to the place where he was most used to - like a homing pigeon heading home for the summer.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

April Fools

Ahh yes! The first day. So far so good is all I can say. Coincidentally the first day of my employment is also April Fools Day.

Thus there was a moment of uneasiness when I first walked into the Global Vision reception, and the smile behind the desk turned into a look of confusion when I announced my arrival.

"Are you sure you're starting today?" she asked surprised.
"Umm, I'm pretty sure." I replied. With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I thought that perhaps Ernst had orchestrated a false appointment as part of a cruel joke.

"Remember that time I made you quit your job? And you were left unemployed, with nowhere to go and ended up on the streets - Ahh fun times."

Thankfully, after a couple of phone calls the receptionists confused look, returned to it's initial friendliness and all was rectified. I was shown to my desk, given a grand induction and spent the rest of the day meeting people and learning about the project that I'm going to be working on.

But man! If someone had pulled the above prank scenario off on someone, that would be one hell of an April Fools...