Survivor

When I started my “20 Firsts” challenge a couple of months ago, for the most part I pretty much just wrote down random things that I wanted to do, and that’s how the list was compiled. One of them was going camping – not because I’ve never been camping, but because I really haven’t been camping since I was about 12! Since I wrote the list, I haven’t given very much thought to how I’m going to accomplish the items, mostly because I’ve been incredibly preoccupied with varsity and other “stuff”. So, I was amazed when I was actually invited to go camping by someone who doesn’t even know that my list exists (unless Dustin happens to read my blog and I don’t know, which is a little creepy!)!

The camping trip itself was centered around my friend Dustin’s 21st birthday party, and the theme was “Survivor” – inspired by the TV series. The invitations were scrolls, which told us that we were challenged to “out-drink, out-party and outlast!”, while surviving 21 hours! I was a little nervous about the party itself – not for fear of being devoured by “lions, tigers and bears”, but rather because I would be camping with 30 or so engineers, who form the bulk of Dustin’s circle of friends, and for those of you who don’t know, engineers are generally quite weird, especially en masse. Nevertheless, my friend Brad and I drove off to Dustin’s house at the Vaal River – aptly named “Vaalium” – on a Friday afternoon and prepared ourselves for the festivities (or having to crawl through mud and climb trees)…

Having arrived, we were greeted by Dustin, who handed us our buffs, splitting us into either the purple or orange team. We dragged our bags down to the river (a move we would regret at 4am, when the temperature dropped severely, but which was done based on the spectacular view), and set up camp. I set my 2-person tent up by myself, while next to me, 3 engineering guys (Andrew, Jonathan and Malcolm) tried to figure out how to put up their 2-storey mansion of a tent, and ended up with a couple of extra tent-poles, which was somewhat suspicious. So far, we had completed challenge #1: building shelter. We then walked back up to the house, where a ferocious game of volley-ball was underway. I took this as an opportunity to practice my photography skills, because I’m a hazard to myself and others on the volleyball court, although the engineers did eventually convince me to join them (and then spent the rest of the match deflecting the ball away from me).

How many engineers does it take to put up a tent? (Jonathan, Andrew and Malcolm)

With most of the survivors having arrived by this stage – and having suitably exhausted themselves with building their “shelters” and defeating one another at volleyball and pool –, it was time for supper. The most challenging part of this for me was not eating the entire garlic bread myself. Yes, as much as I am generally a picky eater, I can’t resist garlic bread! Luckily, I was soon distracted by the salad – and Malcolm kindly agreed to move the bread to the other end of the table…

The majority of the rest of the evening was spent playing pool, meeting engineers and listening to the merits of aeronautical and mechanical engineering over industrial engineering, playing “30 Seconds”, learning how to sokkie with Malcolm, listening to the merits of aeronautical and mechanical engineering over industrial engineering, eating chocolate cake, sitting around the campfire while discussing the merits of aeronautical and mechanical engineering over industrial engineering (which almost ended with me asking Richard if engineers EVER talk about anything else), and eventually ended up on the tennis court, at about 00:30am, playing doubles tennis matches with Malcolm, Rob and Andrew, and then action cricket with whoever was still awake and sober enough to participate at that hour! The most impressive part of this was definitely Rob, who is a lovely indie-emo boy, who became strangely enthusiastic about tennis at 1:30am, and was tearing around the court, drink in hand. Tennis was actually a lot of fun – although that might just be because Malcolm let me serve, and because Dustin really did look like John McEnroe!

At about 3am, we wandered off to our tents to get some much-needed sleep, and we woke up at about 8am, where we traded stories about who snored, who had kicked who in the head, and whose feet were the most frozen (I’m pretty sure I won!). Then, it was time for breakfast – lots of coffee, left-over cake and some scrambled eggs, mostly eaten by very tired, somewhat hung-over groups of people – and the packing up of tents (and the question of how to remove tent-pegs from the ground when they’ve been hammered in much too hard), and the eventual trek back to Jo’burg!

And that was my camping trip! It was certainly not what I expected, but most definitely enjoyable, and I’m looking forward to the next one – regardless of the scenery, activities, company and food!

The Vaal scenery - worth freezing for!

Music and Lyrics

I am going to apologize for this post before I even begin it. For all of you who are not into somewhat pathetic, adolescent romance or who are likely to throw up at the mere suggestion of the age old scenario of “girl meets boy, girl likes boy, girl thinks about boy and wishes for more than a platonic relationship”, I suggest that you skip this post and return to my blog in a couple of weeks, when I am sure I will have written another far more cynical, saccharine-free post – most likely about some more death-defying moments on the M1 highway.

For those of you who have chosen to keep reading however… You have no one to blame but yourselves!

For the record, I don’t generally like posting “stuff” about my relationships – I can’t stand people who brag about how awesomely wonderfully fantastic their sweetie honey-bear significant other is. I also can’t handle long posts by the “desperate and dateless” contingent, as they bemoan yet another Saturday night spent at home by themselves. I’d like to think that my situation is at least a little different, although I’m not so sure about it.

So, I like a boy. It has been a long time since I have found someone who I like this much and who is incidentally a real person (I frequently fall for movie and TV characters, as well as lines in emo songs). I will not bore you with descriptions or details of his looks or personality – for your own sanity, and for fear that he may read this post. Nonetheless, he is lovely, and the kind of boy-person I would like to refer to as my “boyfriend” – if I may be so bold as to use that term. Oddly enough, I would probably also settle for him just knowing that I like him and him being okay with me liking him, because I am a little nervous of rocking the boat, and that is why I have not told him how I feel.

Before this gets any more nauseating, I will get to the point of this post. Basically, I was driving home the other day, thinking about the relationship between him and I and wondering what will come of it all, when a song came onto the radio that ironically epitomized my situation. The song is by a South African band called Freshlyground, and it’s called “I’d Like”:


“What would you do if I kissed you?

What would you do if I held your hand and laid you down?

Would you find me overly familiar towards you? Would you call me insensitive, and say that I deserve to die?

What do I do with all these feelings tearing me up inside?

What do I do with all these wasted hours dreaming of you at night?



I'd like to call you sometime…



What would you do if you knew the truth?

What would you do if I told you the story of my life?

Would you find me overly familiar towards you?

Would you call me crude, fling me aside to the birds?

What do I do with all these feelings holding me back inside?

What do I do with all these wasted hours dreaming of you at night?



I'd like to call you sometime.

I'd like you to need me one time.

I’d like to call you sometime.



What would you do if I kissed you?

What would you do if I held your hand and laid you down?

Would you recognize it’s a need I've been fighting for so long? Would you recognize it’s a hunger only you can fill?

What do I do with all these feelings warming me up inside?

What do I do with all these precious hours dreaming of you at night?



I'd like to call you sometime.

I'd like you to need me one time I'd like to have you all the time.

I'd like to call you...”


So, there you have it. I don’t know what he would do if I kissed him, or if I just told him how I feel. Admittedly, the situation is not quite as romantic as the song itself, but it comes pretty close. I have no game plan at this point – just lots of uncertainty as I wonder about the situation. All I know is that if he asked me out, I would say yes.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Before I begin this post, I must apologise for having neglected my blog in the last month. While I have been extremely busy, the main thing that has prevented me from writing has actually been the title of this post. I've had the idea for the post for at least 2 months, but haven't been able to think of a suitable title for it! It would appear that by choosing to make each post title the title of a movie or TV series, I've seriously limited my options! This post is supposed to be about my yoga class, and I have noticed a severe lack of movies entitled "10 Things I Hate About the Lotus Position" or "My Big Fat Greek Sun Salute". So, in desperation, I have opted for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", as it is at least Eastern (though Asian, and not Indian) and sounds somewhat yogic. If anyone has a better suggestion, please let me know! Now on to the actual post...

I love yoga. I've been doing it for over a year and I love the serenity of the movements, alongside the challenges of some of the postures. Plus, I have the coolest yoga teacher, who was incidentally also my matric English teacher! There are a lot of things that I am really good at - like balancing - and some things that I still haven't managed to get right, like the "Little Bird" posture (your knees balance on your elbows and you support your body weight on your hands). Classes are always interesting - and often amusing! For example, a couple of weeks ago, we had a new teacher, who was filling in while my usual teacher was away. She has just qualified as a yoga instructor, and was extremely keen to show off her abilities. As such, she manically corrected every single position we did - including "The Corpse" (lying flat on your back. How hard can it be to be a corpse? If you can sleep, you can do this!). Having repositioned all my limbs (and even my toes) for The Corpse, she proceeded to lead us in the usual end-of-class relaxation and meditation session. Yoga teachers love tell people to do mystical things, like synchronising their "inner" and "outer" breath, and breathing colours. This teacher told us to "harmonise our life currents", which almost sent me into fits of giggles (while everyone else in the class lay in their perfected Corpses, harmonising away). Oddly enough, I do believe a lot of the concepts that go along with yoga, like chakras and auras and such. It's really just the "mystical" way that yoga teachers incorporate them into classes that amuses me!

The "Little Bird" pose

Nonetheless, I am proud to announce that I have made progress with the "20 Firsts" list, because on the same night that I learnt how to harmonise my life currents, I also managed to do a shoulder stand! I was tired of doing the "easy" option at the end of the class (I usually do "The Bridge", which isn't too difficult), and so decided to give the full "Shoulder Stand" a shot. Much to my own surprise, it was actually quite easy, and I got quite comfortable, with my legs dangling above my head, in a suitably controlled, yogic way! And the rush of adrenaline (or possibly all the blood rushing to my head) was amazing!

The Shoulder Stand

I haven't quite got to the full "Head Stand" yet, but I'm working on it, one yoga class at a time. Updates will follow! Maybe I need to fully harmonise my life currents first...

The Wedding Singer

As I mentioned in my previous post, wedding bells have been ringing for my friend Duncan's sister, Sarah and her fiance, Graham. I was lucky enough to be invited to the wedding on the 28th of June, and I was incredibly excited (and somewhat nervous) about it - excited because I absolutely love weddings (it's a girl thing) and nervous because of the prospect of finding a suitable dress and wearing heels for a couple of hours!

The big day arrived, and I set off for Duncan's house, dressed to the nines in my gorgeous red dress and black satin heels. I was greeted by Duncan - who looked dashing in his kilt, despite his uncertainty as to whether or not his knees were supposed to be visible - and ushered into the house, where assorted family members were gathered. I was duly introduced by his dad, and chatted to the bridesmaids, who I knew from my high school days. After a few more minutes of milling around, we set off in Duncan's car with his mom and the makeup artist, with me holding the buttonhole flowers and spare bouquet. I have noticed something about weddings - despite the facade of calm and serenity which the photos show when you glance at them a couple of months down the line, the behind-the-scenes preparation always involved panic, a late bride, forgotten garters and general stress for the family of the betrothed! And this chaos is capable of permeating innocent guests as well, as I discovered travelling in the car to the wedding, with Duncan's mom brushing his hair as he drove and telling him that getting speeding fines was okay, provided we got there on time (we were already 20 minutes late), worrying about whether we had lost family members who were supposed to be following our car, and wondering whether Sarah would be on time!

We did get to the church though, and by the time Sarah walked down the aisle, to the sound of bagpipes, all the panic of the afternoon (and probably of the prevailing 8 months) was forgotten. The ceremony was beautiful, the bride looked amazing and yes, I cried (and amazingly not because my feet were aching in those heels)!

Having made it through the most important part of the wedding, we drove to the reception venue, where I found myself among an assortment of Duncan's family again. This was initially somewhat terrifying, but I recovered after a cup of tea (caffeine and sugar being the surest way to regain sanity) and actually managed to remember most people's names. I was seated at my table - along with 6 people I had never met - and told that we were playing a game in which we had to identify the movie that the song which was currently playing was from. This proved to have great entertainment value, and we were undoubtedly the most jovial table - although this may have been because we were the closest to the bar! Dinner was lovely - even in my humble, vegetarian opinion - but the highlight of my evening was undoubtedly Duncan's singing. Yes, in case you were wondering who the said wedding singer was, it was Duncan, who has been doing opera for the last few years. He and Sarah's friend Xena sang "All I ask of you" from "Phantom of the Opera". And yes, I cried again, because it was beautiful! And I'm pretty sure that I wasn't the only one crying!

The rest of the evening was filled with dessert (lemon meringue pie!) and dancing with Luke and Duncan, garter-throwing and bouquet-catching (I failed miserably, but maintain that I'd had enough of the bouquet, since I'd held it for Sarah for most of the afternoon). And, in case you were wondering, my photographic skills did improve enough to take some decent pictures of the wedding! All in all, it was a fantastic evening, and my feet did eventually recover from those heels, which I actually managed to dance in (although I did take them off during dinner and the speeches), and which almost became comfortable at a point!

So, here's to weddings, kilts, handsome young men singing in kilts, heels, and good times with friends!

Just Shoot Me

It has been just under a week since I posted my “20 Firsts” list, and so far, things are going really well! I decided that starting small was probably a good idea, and so the first item to be ticked off the list was buying my digital camera.

I’ve never really taken a serious interest in photography, and I’ve got used to my little low-tech traditional Kodak film camera. I’ve limited my photography efforts to holidays, dances and birthday parties, and I’ve been quite happy with the results. That said, a digital camera has started looking increasingly appealing, mostly because my friend Kirstan is a professional photographer. She is forever taking gorgeous pictures, and this has made me take photography a little more seriously. Additionally, I like the instant gratification aspect of digital photography! As fun as film is, it gets a little pricey…

So, last week, I set off to buy my camera. Fortunately, I have “connections” and my friend Brad helped me to find the perfect camera at a really good price! It’s a Sony Cyber-Shot, with 8.1 megapixels. Having paid and got all the bits and pieces that needed to go with it, Brad handed me the camera and told me to go home and read the manual. And yes, I did in fact RTFM, mostly because this camera has so many hi-tech features that I really did need help! It has been a week of trial and error, but things are slowly improving. At least I now longer switch off the camera every time I try to take a picture, because the “power” button is next to the shutter button, and I kept confusing the two! I can now also use the zoom function, shoot in black and white and sepia, and no longer blind people with the flash! My pets and friends (I needed willing, somewhat gullible, subjects!), have suffered as I’ve slowly learned how to use the functions and I can now almost take decent photos, provided that the light is right and the subject stays still. The ultimate test will be this weekend, when I attempt to immortalize a few moments of Duncan’s sister’s wedding, and it should be something of a challenge!

Perhaps I should have specified on the list that I wanted to buy the camera and learn how to use it properly, but I’m sure with enough practice, I should be able to capture some memories on my camera, even if they are blurry or look dazed having been blinded by the flash!

Luke, being blinded by my photographic efforts...

21 Grams

Tomorrow I will be turning 21. In the past while, I've realised that there are an awful lot of things that I would like to do, and while some of them are a little crazy, a lot of them are really ordinary, and most of them will be things that I have never done before (i.e. firsts). As such, I am setting myself a challenge - in the next year, I will do all 20 things on the list which I am entitling "Twenty Firsts".

As such, the twenty firsts are:

1. learn to ride a bicycle
2. make creme brulee from scratch
3. watch the entire "Star Wars" movie series
4. go on a roller-coaster and other amusement park rides (particularly those that involve heights!)
5. go for drinks at the Bowls Club (lame, I know, but I've never done it!)
6. go to the Johannesburg Art Gallery
7. go for ballroom dancing lessons
8. host a dinner party
9. buy a digital camera
10. overcome my fear of snakes (*shut up, Freud!*)
11. go rock climbing
12. read the last "Harry Potter" book
13. watch the entire "O.C." series
14. learn to do a shoulder balance or head stand in yoga
15. go horse-riding
16. attend an event where I can actually wear my little black dress
17. learn how to apply eyeliner (there are emo-boys out there who put me to shame!)
18. go camping (okay, I've done this before, but not in the last 8 years)
19. get my passport
20. paint a landscape

So, that is the list. I will probably post updates about my successes and misadventures as the year progresses. And, if you're interested in joining me on any of the escapades (or you're willing to teach me how to ride a bike!), let me know, because the company (and a cheer-leading squad) is always welcome!

Scary Movie

On Saturday night, after my birthday party, Luke, Duncan and I headed off to AFDA to watch the student film festival. I was very excited, because the last AFDA film screening I had been to was incredible, and I was really looking forward to this one. Duncan and I were also trying out his new "English literature tutor" disguise, consisting of a smart shirt, tie, ponytail and glasses, and I thought he looked pretty impressive.

We got to AFDA at about 19:30, and soon realised that we had missed the boat, because the students were packing up and the last screening had just finished. We wandered around for a bit, and then got back into the car and decided to head off to Hyde Park to watch a movie instead. The boys had decided that M. Night Shyamalan's new film "The Happening" was the way forward, and I didn't protest, because he is one of my favourite directors. "The Sixth Sense" is one of the best movies that I've ever seen, and I prefer his atmospheric thrillers to the usual blood and gore of most horror movies.

So, having booked our tickets, we walked into the cinema just in time for the start - Mark Wahlberg teaching a science class, while outside in New York City, thousands of people start dropping dead. I won't go into details about the actual movie, just in case you want to see it, but the basic pretence of the film is that "something" is inexplicably making people commit suicide across the state of New York. Is it the government? Brain-sucking aliens? Cellphone radiation? No one really knows, but people continue to spark their own demise in a number of creative - and surprisingly gory - ways.

Now, I didn't mind the fact that the plot was pretty far-fetched, that a lot of the acting was bad, or that a lot of the dialogue was somewhat ridiculous. I didn't even mind the gore (but by the way, since when does Shyamalan use the gross-out factor? Okay, admittedly, it's not nearly as bad as most horror movies, like "Saw", but it was a little strange). What I did mind was the tension and the surprise factor. I have now realised that I am probably the worst person to watch horror movies or thrillers with. I spent most of the movie with my hands clutched around Duncan's arm, and whenever there was the threat of blood, I buried my head into his shoulder. At one point, I even had my hands over my ears. Duncan was quite tolerant of this - seeing "Pan's Labyrinth" with me had probably prepared him for it! At one point, Duncan went to the bathroom though, so Luke was forced to put up with me grabbing his arm and doing the head-buried-in-shoulder thing. This would've been okay, had I not screamed audibly just as whatever was coming to attack the innocent victims suddenly emerged.

I survived the movie - and may have almost enjoyed it - but I was significantly freaked out and rather edgy for the rest of the evening. I have to conclude that I am a terrible person to watch thrillers with - unless the other party happens to like losing circulation in their arm and can put up with me hiding behind them for most of the movie, and I have a feeling that those individuals are few and far between.