54 sleeps

Last night it dawned on me that in less than two months I'll be back in North America permanently. I was completely fine with it. I'm ready to go.

57 sleeps

Look what T-Lo found! It's the cable thing-y that goes between the camera and the computer. Well done, T-Lo. I've attached a couple of random photos, two being blurry pics of the Cape Town city bowl at dawn and the one in the middle being a blurry pic of Seapoint at 6am on my way to work one morning. That's it for today.


... fighting mode ...

58 sleeps

Whoa.

[scratches head]

I can't believe it.

I jumped on the blog the other day quickly and noticed I had a new 'follower'. I didn't pay much attention, figuring it was another one of my CT friends with whom I have been chatting about the blog. Well, I just went to the 'followers' page and discovered that Big E - Big E - has joined as a follower.

This means the following:

1. Because Big E has no interest in things like 'blogs', 'facebook', 'IM chat' and other such 'nonsense', someone, presumably my father, told him about my blog.
2. Included in that factoid of knowledge was undoubtedly the fact that I had written masterpiece about Big E's Zimbabwean experience [ha!].
3. My father started laughing uncontrollably at the memory of his youngest son's little adventure into AFrica.
4. The logical progression would be a round-the-table belly laugh about The Time That T-Lo Got Pissed Off At Big E And Put Him On A Bus To Zimbabwe.
5. Knowing Big E, he would be sitting at the table, listening to the belly laughter and fuming (as we do).
6. Big E felt the need to share his side of the story.
7. Somehow, unbeknownst to me, he managed to:
7.1 get online
7.2 find the blog
7.3 sign himself up so he could comment; and
7.4 actually comment.

He is quite resourceful when he puts his mind to it. Naaahh... I put my money on the fact that he paid Shaw to sort it all out for him.

59 sleeps

... fighting mode......

Back soon.

62 sleeps

I have certain crippling fears. Rodents, crowds in open spaces and heights top the list. If I see a rodent I gag (dirty disease ridden little beasts!), if I am stuck in a crowd I freak out (too many people too close! stop touching me!), and when I am forced onto a bridge, I instinctively drop to the ground and leopard crawl back off. I think heights are the worst.

People say to me "Oh, it can't be that bad...I'm sure it's all in your mind." It is that bad and it is not just in my mind. Oh no it isn't! J took me climbing once up India Venster on Table Mountain, which is like the easiest route known to mankind. I got about a meter off the ground and froze. Then started shaking. That was it - climbing effort done. Never again. Earlier this year I decided to get over this fear by jumping off Gouritz Bridge with Sister SS. I got as far as the bridge. Leopard crawl in effect. Bridge jump effort failed. Never again.

So now, in a fit of logic and common sense, I have booked a sky-diving weekend with the fighter girls. People say its much easier to jump out of a plane then off a bridge because you are so high in the air that your perspective of the height is disjointed. We shall see. And Miss K has promised to kick my *ss out of the plane if I have a leopard crawl freak out. So either way, I will be jumping out of a plane soon. Yay!

63 sleeps

Slow night at the office, love? Oh, that made me laugh. Every time I look at it I giggle. Thanks to the DomTastic for forwarding it to me.

It's a beautiful, breathless, sunny stunning Sunday in Cape Town. I'm at work. Barely. I trained yesterday morning on Camps Bay beach with Miss K. What an awesome work out! My calves were ceasing about 20 minutes into training. We are going to do that more often. That, and run up Lion's Head with gas masks on.

TheGreek is finally back from Stellies. Yay! The return of the double deal pizza night! All is good in my world again :) I'm trying to think of something profound, intellectual, humorous to say but nothing is coming to mind. I think my brain is on vacation today. I'll be back tomorrow, with witty stories and fabulous photos.

Happy Sunday!

64 sleeps

This is a bit worrying.

65 sleeps

I'm really gearing up for my last fight in SA. I've been training in the morning (work issues at night). Little Mouse and Miss K from Canada (broken knee and all) have been holding pads for me - thanks, ladies!

In my experience, all fighters have their own peculiar little way of prepping themselves for fights. There's the standard work the fitness and work the technique thing, but we all have nuanced differences in the details. I love the pad work for fitness, the bag to get me moving properly and sparring and grappling to get focused. And I hate - HATE - skipping with an absolute passion. I would rather cycle my brains out for an hour, or do sprints up and down the length of the gym non-stop, than skip. The Little Mouse, on the other hand, skips for 45 minutes straight without cracking a sweat. It just looks so ... painful ... to me.

And then there's the diet! New fighters are always asking how to get their bodies properly fueled. Again, it's up to the individual. Little Mouse has pasta and black coffee to give her energy. If I had that, I would need a 3 hour power nap. Miss K likes her fish and salad. I'd be hungry after 12 minutes. I need red meat and green veg... a steak and a bunch of kale work perfectly for me. I think Miss K would rather eat dirt than eat that.

And... wow... last fight in SA. How did it all come to this? On so many levels? I'm going to miss my DP family when I go.

Oh - Miss K (who was born in the same town as me in Canada.. how weird!) sent me this today, which has had me rocking at my desk :)

67 sleeps part 2

Oh - the Airplane Party Pack, for those who have been asking (you know who you are ;) ) -

INGREDIENTS
1 X fun fur leopard print eye mask
1 X fun fur leopard print neck support thingy
1 X pair comfortable, yet bright and ideally bold-print, pyjamas
1 X minibar size bottle of poison of your choice (Jack, Johnny or similar)
1 X Allergex
1X Zolnoft or similar knock-you-dead sleeping pill
1 X 100 ml or less (thanks, Heathrow) tub of cream

DIRECTIONS
After you finish your meal (along with the mini bottle of wine), go to bathroom and put on pyjamas.
Return to seat.
Pop allergex and Zolnoft.
Consume Jack/Johnny while watching cartoons.
Rub face, hands, other exposed skin liberally with cream.
Put on leopard print get up.
Turn off cartoons and put on the classical music station at mid-decibel level.
Pass out.

For me, it's the only way to fly. I could sleep between nine screaming babies, four snoring men, massive turbulence (although I would be upset if I missed it) with my knees cramped around my waist and my neck on a 90 degree angle to the right on the Pack.

When I first started long-hauling it, I never could sleep. I think I watched that Michael Jordan Looney Tunes basketball movie nine times in a row on a Singapore - Cape Town leg once. Between the babies crying and the people snoring I couldn't sleep. Never again. When I flew Etihad from Abu Dhabi to Bangkok, I did the Pack (not for the first time). As the plane started to descend, I woke up on the shoulder of the man sitting next to me, drooling on myself and completely confused. While I was asleep, he ninja-dropped into first class and hosed me some green grapes. He said I looked like I could use some fresh fruit. How sweet :)

67 sleeps

I finally got the batter charger for my Cybershot and have been taking random photos all over the place... on the way to work, at the grocery store, while training in the park with Ms K from Canada. I'm pretty proud of myself.. I have always said to myself, since I lived in Tokyo, that I must take average everyday photos of my life generally so I have some sort of memory of it. Now I'm actually doing it! [high fives] *misses*

So, congrats to the T-Lo on sorting that little thing out. Then, I had this brilliant idea that I would upload photos on this blog of my every day life for my friends and family to see. So... cybershot? Check. Battery? Check. Battery charger? Check. Cool photos ready to be uploaded? Check. Cord thing-y that goes between camera and computer to allow for photo transfer? Fail. Now where did I put that thing?

I'll get there. I will.

69 sleeps

I fear change, yet I thrive on it.

71 sleeps

What self indulgent little tale can I tell today?

I've written about Big E and his Zimbabwe experience [ha!], and Big A and his Namibia experience, so I will share a tale about T-Lo's South Africa experience.

June 1997. Cape Town. I was standing at the Pick n Pay in Gardens with all the money in the world that I had. It fit into my right hand and consisted entirely of brown coins. I figured out I could afford two loaves of multigrain bread. I opted for the multigrain because of its superior nutritional value to the average white bread.

I knew I wanted to get back up to Namibia, and I had three months left on my air ticket (Singapore Airways, via Singapore, highly recommend them) before it expired. I just had to figure out how to stay. I called my Dad. After a brief synopsis of my situation (I didn't want to leave, I wanted to go to Namibia, I just had to get there), I asked if there was anything he could do to help me. He said that he would overnight me something to give me the help I needed. I was overjoyed. Excited. Relieved.

The package arrived. I ripped it open. Do you want to know what was in there? Do you?

The job ads for Toronto. With some career options carefully highlighted in yellow. That was it.

I fumed.

And I was more determined than ever that I would get my *ss to Namibia and work on the Orange, like I had wanted to but not really believed possible. So I packed my backpack, took my remaining loaf and a half of bread and managed to get a lift to the Orange with one of the directors of the company. I told him that I had done a trip as a client and wanted to become a river guide. He told me that the Orange wasn't really suitable for women, maybe I would enjoy catering on the Breede.

I fumed.

And I was more determined than ever that I would become a river guide on the Orange. So, I learnt how to swim properly (doggie paddling doesn't count, apparently), took a river guide course and started doing trips as a 'hantie' - basically, dogs body. I washed dishes on the river. I carried wood and rubbish and pots and pans in my boat. I ran into rocks. I went down rapids backwards. I got stuck in trees. But I kept at it. Pops (the director on the Orange who eventually became a second father to me, Big A and Big E) was amazed by my stubbornness (its a quality I get from my mom, but she calls it 'determination'). Eventually, I was selected to be one of the guides on the company's flagship trip on the Cunene. Yes! It was a two week trip through a game park, down the Cunene, on a cheetah farm....overall brilliant experience. Because I had no where to live in Cape Town, I had to take everything I owned with me on the trip. On the way up to Windhoek at about 4am, the small Venter trailer (carrying everything I owned minus the clothes I was wearing and my wallet) on the back of the fully loaded LandCruiser popped off. We didn't notice. I lost everything I owned. After the trip, I called my mom and cried to her that I had lost everything I owned. She told me that the universe was cleansing me and I should embrace having nothing.

I fumed.

But I was more determined than ever that this would not detract me from enjoying my Africa experience. My airline ticket expired. I didn't care. I was loving life, guiding on the Doring, the Orange and the Cunene. I was living outside, sleeping under the stars at the base camp. I had a sleeping bag donated to me by one of the guides. My entire wardrobe could fit into a 20 liter blue bucket. I did not own make up. I did not read magazines or newspapers. I did not watch tv. I worked for a pittance and had a place to sleep and food to eat. I only found out Princess Diana died (may she rest) four days after she did.

Alas, the time came that I had to go back to the Hammer. I left Namibia in January 1998, at a balmy 50 degrees celcius in the shade. I flew back to Hammer. When I landed, it was -38 degrees celcius with the wind chill. I stayed with my mom in her apartment.

The amazing thing was that because I had slept outside for nine months, I could not sleep inside. So, for the first month I was back, on a nightly basis, I would go out to the balcony, sweep off the snow, drag out my mattress, put about two down duvets and my African sleeping bags on the mattress, put on flannel pjs and sleep outside under the stars. And all of that - and I mean all, the T-Lo story, the Big E story and the Big A story - started with the classified ads.

73 sleeps

Today I am all about this and this. I would like to be all about this.

74 sleeps (for real)

Done. Booked. Insomnia sucks... I wish I had it during the day instead of at night. Am so tired, so very very tired. And busy at work, so very very busy. In light of tired/busy, I give you a photo of a chinese crested dog, because I think they're cute.

Back tomorrow. Happy day, peeps!