More about Me

Hello. Today, I'm giving everyone a sneak peak into my life. Below are places I've lived and studied, so far. More to come probably. All courtesy of Google Earth.

Sherwood in Durban. My first house, although not mine LEGALLY.

Harrington Thorn Pre-Primary and Sherwood Primary.

Cowies Hill, Durbs

Westville Senior Primary (and Westville Girls' High - I didn't go there)

Westville Boys' High, sans the new MPC.

University of the Free State, and JBM Hertzog. My first res, although that didn't last very long.

Jim Fouche Road, where I lived AFTER res. (The house in the middle of the pic with the reddish roof. The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire... burn mother ...... burn.) Universitas, Bloemfontein.

The University of Cape Town Rondebosch, Cape Town

My UCT res, University House. Original name, don't you know. Long white roofs. View towards the Atlantic (Table Bay). Mowbray, Kaapstad.



Current accommodation, next to UCT Medical School on the slopes of Devils peak in the vicinity of hospital bend. Observatory, Cape Town.

Okay, bye.

Poetry in motion...

When your science teacher smashed a frozen rose with a hammer, did you warm the petals to bring them back to life?

I found this question on Sarah's profile. I found it interesting that she said she couldn't be poetic with material such as this and so she gave up. ASK FOR A NEW QUESTION THEN!

Here's my take.

No, I didn't. It's likely that the plant had no chance of survival anyway. Cryogenics is a new field and in high school, being that I wasn't privately educated with unlimited funds, I did not have the required equipment. I might attempt it now, but that's only because I'm on holiday for 6 weeks.

Next question please...

The next question supplied was "Why am I being boring". It's convenient how questions just pop up out of the blue yonder. However, the correct question is not 'why' but 'who'. Figure that one out and I'll give you a lolly pop.

Back in time...

As you may now notice, I have found a slot in Bloggers' busy schedule to upload some of the photos I have been wanting to upload for WEEKS now. Today, we take a trip back in time.

Welcome.

A few weeks ago, I was going on about people striking whenever it suited them and I was quite irritated. I found these pictures, with regard to the Jammie Shuttle strike at the University of Cape Town. I'm all for a progressive democracy, but I couldn't understand why the SRC put forward the motion that the students should support the drivers' quest for more money. I had two objections. Firstly, the drivers work FOR the students, and secondly, it was an inconvenience to us. Why should I support something that inconveniences me? I did some research and discovered what the SRCs of previous years have got up to at UCT. Here are some photos.

Here are some photos of students at UCT in the 1970s protesting the right to education for all.

Jammie Hall

Jammie Plaza (Steps)

The roof of Arts Block

1980s protests

On the bank by the sports centre facing the M3 freeway, being teargassed.

An SRC mass action meeting in Jameson Hall. How things have changed.

And for perspective, I've included the group shot of today's SRC. 2006

Some other images I wanted to upload are my advertising campaign for TeleFm. Here goes...

Nope, maybe next time. Blogger is back to its nonsense again. How wonderful, although I didn't do so badly today, did I?

Bye.

Marketing genius

I have a lot of time on my hands. This six week holiday is looking good in terms of me becoming a marketer. I've had two ideas.

Firstly, my Vodacom advert. Vodacom are marketing themselves as the greatest supporter of South African supporters. Picture this.

A car driving down a road in the early evening. Kaizer Chiefs have just won their game. There is a minibus taxi with people hanging out the window, blowing their Vuvuzelas waving their Kaizer Chiefs flags. The car drives up alongside the taxi and whips out a Kaizer Chiefs flag and Vuvuzela. The people celebrate together. The car turns a corner and comes across the losing teams supporters, Bloemfontein Celtic. They're still upbeat, cos we're South African. Nothing keeps us down. The people in the car grab their Celtics flag and Vuvuzela and party alongside the losers. The car drives on past different Vodacom supported sports teams at different levels of happiness, jubilation and sadness, from winning or losing or maybe because their team didn't even play. The people in the car frantically move through different flags, giant sunglasess and sporting paraphernalia. Eventually, the car approaches a red light. It is late in the evening and the occupants are visibly exhausted. As they take a short break, the camera pans down to the side of the car where the viewer sees why these strange people are supporting every team. It's because they're supporting the supporters. The car is branded. "Vodacom. The greatest supporter of South African supporters"

My second idea was something particularly brilliant. Don't you hate it when you phone up a big company and have to sit and listen to Bright Eyes or Chariots of Fire until they answer? My answer to this problem is Telefm. (Because it's like telephone). I should have called it Telephm, but I didn't.

The DJ can play spoofs of different songs. Change some words, and make the songs rip off the fact that you are waiting for hours on the phone. People with a sense of humour will appreciate it. There is no advertising on the station. That's just stupid. Money comes from the companies that outsource their waiting time to Telefm. Good idea, hey. If spoofs aren't working, the DJ can switch to songs like Atomic Kitten's Tide is High. "I'm not the kind of girl who gives up just like that".

I've emailed my first idea to Vodacom. It's their baby now. I'm keeping the second for myself. I designed a few other logos for Telefm but I prefer the one above. I'm having more photo trouble at the moment so I'll post the others later.

Cheerio. Let me know how good I am.

Six weeks...

I am on holiday for 6 weeks now. What to do, what to do...?

Option 1: Watch TV

Option 2: Start a mass action strike to increase my holiday wages and use unsuspecting shop windows to get my point across.

Option 3: Sleep

Option 4: Hijack an aeroplane from Cape Town to Johannesburg

Option 1 and 3 are rather boring, so no. Option 2 requires too much work and I don't have enough support to declare a mass action. Option 4: some idiot stole my idea.

Yes, you heard me right. There was an attempted hijacking on SAA flight 322 on Saturday morning. Another UCT student (from Zimbabwe - dangerous people those apparently) decided that he'd rather head to Mozambique (who can blame him) than Zim. So what do you do? You take a needle that you've stolen from UCT med school, seeing as the third years are all learning how to take blood, and you 'scratch' the hir hostesses face with it. "Let me into the cockpit" you yell.

'Oh, okay sonny. No problem, chicken or beef?'

However, to show the Americans how it is done, three South Africans in business class, who had grown tired of reading about Mugabe and his gang, worked their own magic. Even before the needle emerged, they were thinking 'how can we take this Zimbo down?'. In fact, as the plane was boarding, the off duty pilot saw the Zimbo and thought: 'If only I was flying'.

Long story short. Minds were racing - Are we going to be flown into the Union Buildings? - No, too far, he would have only hijacked us later - That big tower in Hillbrow? - Too narrow, we'd probably miss, the pilot's not that good - The twin towers? - Idiot, they've already had that episode - Nelson Mandela Rylaan, Bloemfontein? - GOD NO! NOT THERE. GET HIM!!!

Two South African businessmen and an off duty pilot 'rushed' the man, subdued him (by pounding his head) and tied him back in his seat. The pilot pulled a U'y{?} and landed back in Cape Town. The story goes that the hijacker asked for some water, but, as is common on SAA flights, he was refused.

Because the entire sequence of events can be confusing to understand, I've included a photograph of the plane below, taken mid-action.

You can just make out the hijacker in the fifth window from the left. Notice the shocked expression on the pilots face and also, look at the kid with the big ears near the rear. It makes me laugh.

You may also notice that I am now able to upload photos. I'll try to upload some to my previous posting about the strikes etc.

Goodbye for now, see you soon.

Still 'harping' on

‘Words’ was the wrong song. Damn. It actually says that words FADE and that meaning can only be found in your heart. How peculiarly corny. Typical SA love song. No. Typical love song, internationally. Anyway this whole thing kind of screws up my entire argument in the previous posting. Now I have to find another song.

What I have found is another passage about music in the book I’m reading at the moment, and this time I’ve kept track of it so I can quote it directly. After this, I’ll get off this point and find something interesting to talk about, although nothing much else is happening in my life at the moment.

Well, the book is by Ian McEwan and is called Saturday. It’s quite good, but I’ll give you a full synopsis when I’m finished.

“… and walks into the middle of the dark auditorium, towards the great engine of sound. He let’s it engulf him. There are these rare moments when musicians together touch something sweeter than they’ve ever found before in rehearsals or performance, beyond the merely collaborative or technically proficient, when their expression becomes as easy and graceful as friendship or love. This is when they give us a glimpse of what we might be, of our best selves, and of an impossible world in which you give everything you have to others, but lose nothing of yourself. Out in the real world there exist detailed plans, visionary projects for peaceable realms, all conflicts resolved, happiness for everyone, for ever – mirages for which people are prepared to die and kill. …But only in music, and only on rare occasions, does the curtain actually lift on the stream of community, and it’s tantalizingly conjured, before fading away with the last notes.”

As of yesterday, I've started a new book. The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto Guevara. I'm sure there'll be some quotable quotes in that one too. Unfortunately, this can't be a really long blog cause I have some emailing to do and also I want to have another stab at those pictures.

Word of the day is back!

suc·cinct (sk-sngkt) adj. suc·cinct·er, suc·cinct·est

succinctly
adv : with concise and precise brevity; to the point; "Please state your case as succinctly as possible"; "he wrote compactly but clearly" [syn: compactly]
Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

And that's how I'll end this post.

Goodbye.

Da doo ron ron ron

I think I may officially now be giving up on trying to upload photographs to Blogger. It's just not happening for me. Onto today though:

Could someone please try to organise the Reggae remix of Celine Dion se Titanic choon for me? Cool: my new word.

I realise that cool is in fact an old word. A VERY old word, but I caught myself using it and decided that it was pretty cool to start using it again. I even used it as a ‘thank you’ with the Woolworths cashier. How very wrong. She was from Overport, Durban. (She saw my Westville Boys’ High ‘My School Card’) Isn’t it strange how almost all Woolies cashiers are from Overport. The Durban and the Cape Town ones.

I have to congratulate and say how proud I am of my sister. Firstly, she managed to navigate, not only to Barcelona, but also through a one hour time zone, without hitches. (Apart from her waking up at 5 in the morning when she returned to London).

I also have to say conga-rats to Sissie for her blog. Much better job than me of late. Yes, she has no job (no mean to offend) and I’ve been writing exams, but I still feel as though I have neglected my blog audience of two, sometimes three people. I’ve also found some inspiration on Sarah’s blog, and I’m not talking about those two huge knockers which you managed to covertly photograph in Spain. (You can thank me for your extra site hits at a later stage). Sister introduced not word of the day, but song of the day. Splendid! “What? I introduced who?”

From now on, wherever possible, I will publish my favourite or the most pertinent and significant lyrics relating to my subject topic. This may be difficult seeing as I searched Google for ‘big boob lyrics’ and got… you know. Big boobs with songs written ON them. I read a book recently by John o’Farrell called ‘The best a man can get’.

The main character, Michael, is annoyed with his wife because she is so eloquent. She wins every argument because she is quick with her words and because he doesn’t understand them. He writes music for TV commercials. He says something quite striking which I tend to agree with. (I can’t find the direct quote, but it goes a little something like this:). ‘I wish I could just pick up my guitar and start singing to her. Songs encapsulate human emotion beyond words. I could sing anything and make her believe me. A song can change a mood, and therefore change a life.’ Alright so that’s not exactly it, but you get the gist. (Yes I did learn for my exams.)

My plan is to use South African songs only, but that probably won’t be possible.

Jason Mraz – The Remedy

Well, if you’ve gots the poison, I’ve gots the remedy.
The remedy, it’s the experience, this is a dangerous liason
I says: The comedy is that it’s serious
This is a strange and whole new play on words
I said the tragedy is how you’re gonna spend
The rest of your nights with the light on
So shine the light on all of your friends
When it all amounts to nothing in the end
I won’t worry my life away…

Any suggestions for significance in there? I don’t understand it personally. Maybe it wasn’t such a good song to start with.

Talking exams, I am now officially finished my 5th semester of my first undergraduate degree. One more to go so wish me luck. (Apart from the exam I am writing in just over an hour- wish me luck for that too!)

The word of the day, by the way, is COOL.

And now that I’ve said “Words” I’ve found the song I was looking for.
This is today’s snippet, which conveys the reason for having a song for the day. It’s poetry.

Words - Niemand

But the words don’t always come out right
I let them go and they take flight
Words don’t always mean the most
Yes, sometimes words just don’t get close

Words don’t mean the things I do
Don’t wait for words to get you through
Cause words will fade like falling stars
But you’ll find me in the meaning in my heart

Cause words are sounds that can’t even start
To sing the melody in my heart

And the title of today’s posting? You should know. Da doo ron ron by The Crystals!

I tried to add another picture again. ARGH!!!

Today we learn how to say goodbye in isiXhosa.
Sala kakuhle

Wathint'aBafazi...

...waThint'iMbokodo. You strike a woman... you strike a rock. Striking is a popular thing these days. (How's that for an inappropriate link - no I'm not anti SA anti women's rights et cetera). I thought it was a minor thing that people do. You know... get off work for a few days, get paid more. But I have to stop and think when it affects me.

Firstly, the security guard strike. I was in Pick 'n Pay the other day and I admit, I am a generally suspicious person when out in Cape Town with the rest of the 'public'. Anyway. This dodgy looking person was following me with his hand in his jacket pocket. I even checked. I walked around the entire shop once. I was being followed. Mmm, I thought. Let's make my way to a security guard or something. Next thing I know. Dodginess following me whips a radio out of his pocket and tells 'control' something of importance. Didn't I feel like a noonoo. But it's funny that the security guards all look like criminals when they aren't dressed in their uniforms. I've formulated a(n... tricky one this) hypothesis. They are all criminals! Look at what they've been doing when they're out of work. They should all be fired and deported. How can you trust a security guard who thinks it's OK to throw someone off a train just because he doesn't support your cause to be paid more.

Becoming less political, slightly, I've always thought I should comment on the state of student governance at UCT. As you can see, a couple of people stopped reading my blog right there. That's right. The SRC is boring, and don't make a difference in anyone's life. Half way through the year and we're onto our third president. Here is the reason we're soon to a fourth.

Our SRC wants to be like SRC's of the past. They want to support something meaningful. They want to make a difference. They want to make a noise. The only problem is that the majority of the SRC don't understand much (in terms of anything) and they don't understand that they're working against themselves.

Example one: the challenging of the Vice-Chancellor because he said that work lost due to power failures will be made up by Easter Vac. The SRC held a mass meeting (I hear upwards of 10 people attended) to boycott lectures (?) and let the administration of this University know that we are not 'academic machines'. 'We will not work during Easter Vac'. Two points. We are academic machines. That's why we are here, and if the SRC had any academia associated with them (let's say brain matter), they would realise that 'by the Easter Vac' does not mean 'during the Easter Vac'.

Example two (my favourite): The Jammie Shuttle Drivers embarked upon a strike. The SRC asked: "Should we as a student movement towards furthering democracy show solidarity with the Jammie Driver Union". No you dimwits. We shouldn't. We are their employers. Let's see. WE pay THEM. THEY work for US. THEY go on strike (SRC figuratively trips up). WE support them. The SRC, who are constantly complaining about exorbitant fees now want us to give just that little more to the moron driving the bus because: he did the democratic thing and went on strike. I've found some before and after photos of the UCT SRC.

That's all for today. Hopefully I'll see you around sooner, rather than later. One exam down (it was a shocker), three to go.

OK, so I've spent half an hour trying to upload photos. I'll try again tomorrow, or maybe Monday. Or sometime. But the pics are really good. I promise.