Between the birds and the cats...

I have been having bird and cat issues again. The birds I'm not surprised about, they just don't like me, but now the cats too! There is lots of birds around campus they fly and walk around inside and out of all the buildings, which I have finally gotten used to. Occasionally (now, used to be more frequent) a bird or three will be in my office, they fly in the window and can't figure out how to get back out so they fly into the window for about 20 minutes before they figure it out. I usually leave my office window open, even during the night, it keeps the office cooler. On occasion I have been fortunate enough to find bird poop around my office when I come in in the morning. I hate cleaning it up but it is worth it to leave the window open. Yesterday I come into school, didn't bring any food or anything because I usually keep a little stock pile in my office. I had been working for about an hour when I started to get a little hungry, and decide on my apple... a bird had ate the majority of my apple. I was so sad, I really wanted that apple but no I had to have cookies instead. So now I have to decide what's more important to me... boiling or starving to death, I think I'll go for starving at least I may have a chance to fight for my poor apples next time. I'm pretty sure that the apple thieves are these little black crow like birds with a crazy orange strip down either side, quite scary looking with a raven type of look to them.

I'm also having a few pigeon problems as well, not real problems per say but a genuine annoyance. We live on second floor of a building and it is a 2 storey building so right above us is the roof. The pigeons like to play on our roof... I bet you didn't realize that pigeons liked to play or when they do, they do it very noisily. As of late there are baby pigeons up there somewhere who when hungry (well I'm assuming that haven't really asked them or anything) like to screech to the high heavens. Ah, this is where my little cat issue comes in to. The cats have now taken to chasing the afore mention pigeons and I have now discovered that cats are in fact more noisy than the pigeons, not in the cooing way but in the running across the roof sort of way. At least I sleep through it all, but when your awake it can to a slight annoyance.

The cats on the roof is only my first issue, there is another one, they enjoy coming into my room. I don't have a window to open in my room, i have a door which goes out to the balcony. I do get lots of sun (at times to much) but to get air into my room I must open the door. But the dam cats have taken to coming into my room when the door is open. This has just started so hopefully I can stop it some how because with the door close I'm going to have a very hot summer.

Maybe the cats will take care of the pigeons than what I guess I need to get a dog to get rid of the cats? By the way I do in fact love cats (actually more of cat person than a dog one) but I don't not love fleas, and maybe this is a bit prejudges but cats that play on roofs with pigeons are at bit to high of a risk for fleas for me.

No more newspapers...

I've had it, I am not reading the local newspaper any longer. Okay I will but don't want to. Most mornings, as long as I get my ass out of bed at a decent hour, I get a coffee and read a bit of the paper before I start to work. This is a nice calming activity and has become a part of my morning routine. But the problem has become I can't handle reading the paper in the morning anymore, today I was almost in tears by the time I had finished.

The papers here are horribly sensationalized, I do realize this but still the actual information in the stories is what gets to me. The first five stories I opened up today 1) A 7 year old boy sold his bike to buy bread for his mother and sister (nice part though a group got together to get him a bike for Christmas and a grocery store is giving them gift certificates for a year but still tugs on the heart strings) 2) The son of a big time reporter was found burned alive in the trunk of his car 3) A mother donates her kidney to her son and gave him HIV in the process because the hospital was to incompetent to test for HIV even though they told them it would 4) A police officer shot and killed his wife than himself (this has actually been happening quite a bit lately I can think of at least 4 other case in which police officers killed their wife/ girlfriend than themselves in the last 2 months or so) 5) And last but most heart wrenching for me, a five year old was found wondering the streets with burns on her hands and she had been whipped. Her parents accused her of stealing 30 cents than placed her hands on a hot plate, whipped her and kicked her out of the house. When she was found she had been wondering the streets of a township for more than 24 hours!! Who could do that to a five year old little girl, especially when its your own daughter!

That is how my morning started and I just couldn't read anymore so I gave up and started to work. Well I guess that is one positive that the worse the news stories get the more work I get done, but I think I would rather read nice stories about how good this world is (not saying ignore the bad stuff just wish there wasn't any) than increasing the amount of work I get done.

Dreaming of the simple life

Nothing is ever simple for me, not that I'm complaining or anything. It just seems like the simplest stuff takes me so long to do. Today is a perfect example, I need to drop off some samples to a guy to get prepared so I can run some tests, a two second job for most people... but not for me. I see this guy probably 3-4 times a day usually as I'm walking around the department, today I have already spend over an hour looking for the guy on a few different occasions. He's no-where! I know he's here people keeping telling me that they just saw him somewhere or other, so I go running to the last sighting and he's already gone. Maybe he's avoiding me, but I don't think he even knows I'm looking for him.

Last week I went over to Chemical engineering, again to run tests on some samples. I didn't know who I had to see so I had emailed the general enquiries person for the department and they never responded! Side note: Why would you post a email address for general enquiries if your not going to check them? Bad form chemical engineering, bad form. Anyways I go to the reception and tell them I want to have some samples processed who do I need to see? They send me to some guy in some office in the corner of nowhere, which took me 5 minutes to find with the aid of several people in the hall. I finally find the guy and he tells me he has nothing at all to do with sample testing I need to find someone else, so he points me in the right direction I go off more lost than ever. About 10 minutes later still looking for this women's office, the guy I was originally sent to walks by and sees me, realizes I'm more incompetent than he realized so offers to help me find the lady. We go to about 5 offices/ labs looking for her when finally some tells us that she's gone to the states for the next 2 weeks and tells us whose in charge of the lab for that period, so off we go again in search of her. A few more labs and offices later we find her!! i thank the guy and have the 30 second conversion with this women about getting my samples tested she hands me a sheet to fill out and tells me to bring the samples over anytime. See simple, except it took me an hour to do that 30 second job. A few days later I have my samples all prepared and go back over to drop them off, I thought great I know where I'm going this will be a 2 second job. Nope, there's no one in the lab where I was suppose to drop it off, so I go to an office I was taken to 2 days previously and no one is there either. So I go back down to reception hoping that now at least I know who I'm looking for they'd be able to help me. I was sent to 3 more offices with no one able to help me at all. I leave frustrated and decide to come back and hopefully some one will be in the lab then, well four days later (every day going over) I was finally able to drop off my samples, a nice and simple 2 second job.

These are just a few examples of the not so simple life for me, I know lots of people have these moments but I think they actually occur more now than the jobs that actually do turn out to be simple. People always say to simplify when your feeling stressed out whatever, but how can I do that when I'm not the problem (for once at least).

UPDATE: After spending another 30 minutes looking for the guy I gave up for today trying to find him, and decided to have a smoke... and tada there he is! So the samples have been dropped off and now I just need to find the guy whose actually going to test them, already seen him 3-4 times today so I figure I better wait till tomorrow to try and find him.

Prision Guard

Ever place I have lived here as well as all of my friends places require keys to get in and out of a place. We always joked that you can't run out on someone (or visa versa) in the morning because you would need to wake them to open the door and turn of the alarm.

I have only been locked in somewhere once before, at least it wasn't in the house but in the yard, the front gate stop working so we couldn't get out... it took two of us over an hour and a pitch fork to free us from the yard.

We have a friend staying with us for awhile and he just started a new job yesterday. For some reason my roommate was up and out of the house before 8, which actually never happens, sometimes he's not home yet but he's never actually up and out. Anyway I was leaving and I did ask the friend whose staying with us when he was leaving, he said 20 minutes or so. I was running to drop off my laundry and said if I didn't see my roommate coming back from the store I would run back and let him out. Neither of us figured my roommate would have gone farther than the store at that hour of the morning. So I drop off my laundry and decided to go back to the flat to let poor Charl out, on my way back I saw my roommate go around the corner to the flat so I left for school. Turns out it was not my roommate in fact and he had gone all the way to Claremont. So I get a call where are you I'm stuck, I felt soooooo bad, its the guys second day on a new job and he was going to be so late. But I guess the people understood I do think that this actually happens quite a lot to people. So I had to run all the way back from school to let him out of the house. Kinda of scary to think that you can actually be locked in your own house, or even worse someone else's!

At least I got my exercise back and forth to school 4 times in one day, which is a lot especially when I have walked 3 of those times already... today I'm shuttling home I think I deceive it or maybe not maybe it should be my punishment for locking up poor Charl.

Baby Hugs (Bear)

I'm going to state this right up front, I am not opposed to hugging.

I don't come from an overly touchy feely family, we're not big huggers. I do hug friends, especially when I won't or haven't seen them in a long time but I don't usually hug them on a daily basis. I have no problem with doing so it just doesn't occur to me. Since moving here I've realized that its a really huggy place, most people hug and kiss everytime they see one another and everytime they leave one another. I haven't really been doing this, there are a few of my closer friends that I do, but they initiate them and I have now become used to it. But if they don't initiate them I don't. I have had several people actually comment on this to me. I don't mean to be mean, yeah horrible English sorry, but I just don't think about it. One friend always asks don't I get a hug, ever time I see him, a few times I have just hugged him without him asking and he was shocked, saying I didn't even need to ask.

I don't know if it is a cultural thing or just a me thing. Either way I can't just start hugging the people that I haven't been can I? Even last night my roommate made some comment that I never hug him, but I can't be hugging him everytime I or he leaves the house or come home, that we just get a little out of hand I think. So is there rules to this whole hugging thing, because if there are I sure haven't figured them out yet. Here's a few that I think I need to iron out before anything else...

How well do you need to know someone before the hugging begins? So far in my experience if you talk to someone for about 30 minutes or more on first meeting they will hug you goodbye, and sometimes the huggings continue on next meeting sometimes they don't. But there are other people that I know much better and have never hugged, so there is definitely no 30 minute rule and the second meeting hug still has me baffled.

If your leaving somewhere but are coming back do you hug everyone goodbye, and if you do, do you hug them hello again? This I just stay away from if I leave and am planning to return I don't hug but many do, so is there a certain amount of time you have to be gone for before you hug, fuck knows!

The double kiss with the hug. Recently (over the past few weeks) I have been getting a lot more of the double kiss with my hugs, I don't know why this sudden increase in kissing, do I just look sad and lonely and that's why people have been kissing me or maybe I'm just so hot people can't resist anymore. Well that's a bit of a pipe dream, because the increased kissing is not just from the lesbians and straight guys but also from the gay guys and straight girls so I guess I just look lonely and sad. But I never know if I should go in for the kiss or not, so I usually let the other person lead but this has resulted in a few awkward moments for me. Which will not be reiterated here, because we all know that I have the ability to embarrass myself extremely well so recording such moments is probably not necessary.

If anyone knows the proper hugging etiquette please let me know, you may in fact safe me from several awkward situations and maybe even a head butt or two.

December 1 was world Aids day, since I didn't blog thought it still decieved a mention....

Dumpster diving to walking Q-tips

I love walking around in this city, you can never get bored you see some of the crazy most abnormal things everyday. I know I have said this a thousand times but it is true. Take Tuesday for example, it was garbage day, so everyone puts out there bins on the side walk, but because of the huge amount of homeless you know they are going to go through ever single bin. We use to always put the stuff the may want on the top and never tied the bags so that way they could get easier and if there was broken glass we tried to wrap it up really well and labelled it in at least 2 languages. So on my way to school I'm used to seeing people dumpster diving (people here actually don't know the term and find it very funny) but this Tuesday I come walking up Station Rd. and see this big mamma (rather large black women, not an offensive term here)looking through a bin and then moved on to the next one, I registered her but didn't give it much thought. When she got to the next bin is reached in and plucked a kid (maybe 6 or 7) out of the bin, and moved on to the next one. At the sight of that I was taken a back for a moment, but when she got to the next bin and pick another kid out of another bin (this one even younger) I thought I must be imagining this, until she grab a third kid out of a third bin!! I'm so thankful for sunglasses because as I saw the third kid being plucked from the bin my eyes must have almost bulged out of my head. There was nothing I could do, I didn't even have any cash on me to give them, so I just keep on my way to school but it did look like the got some good stuff, a new pair of shoes and some type of clothing.

That was only a one time thing, I highly doubt I will be seeing kids being pulled from garbage bins on a regular basis. The thing I do see all the time is people carrying around loaves of bread. I find this so funny, and I don't even know why, the berkies sure, breads cheap and filling, but I hardly see them with loaves of bread its just random everyday people walking down the road with their loafs of bread. Plastic bags here do cost a few cents to get (great idea and should be started at home as soon as possible) so I understand if you only have one item you won't get a bag, but how many people go to the store and only buy bread? I mean this bread carrying thing isn't a random occurrance, probably once a day or at least every 2 days I see people taking their bread for walks. I just don't know.

I went to the national muesum on the weekend, one of best muesum I have ever gone to, it has my three favorite things minerals/fossils, biology, and African history and artifacts, I was like a kid in the candy store! But on my way there I was walking down a street in the city center and there was nobody around really, Sunday during the day the city center is pretty dead. I look up and see this random guy walking down the road (in the middle) holding an enomorous flag that reads "Don't want to go to hell, repent your sins and love Jesus", maybe not that random becasue there is a lot of freaks out there, but their not usually walking down the middle of an empty street spreading their message. It did turn out that there was a festival going on (still not sure what festival) but there were a few stages with live bands and all of that, lots of fun and some good music. So the guy probably showed up for all those people but still he was walking away from all of them and on an empty street, go figure.

This morning I was cutting through Groote Schuur (Hospital where the first heart transplant was done) like I always do to catch the shuttle and I saw a walking Q-tip (kinda of a mean reference, I am in fact a bitch). Some guy got beat up or hurt some how, and had his wrapped up with a huge white bandage (slightly bigger than the turbans that the Sihk men wear) and he was super skinny, so he literally became a walking Q-tip. I guess this isn't even all that out of the ordinary but it just shows that you never know what your going to entertain yourself with when you go out a walking.

Can't make this stuff up

I ran into my ex-flatmates a while back and I had heard they were mugged so I got them to tell me the story. This is the funniest story I have ever heard, it literally had me in tears in the grocery store as she was telling me. I plan on regrugitate this story for you all I only hope that I can relay it even half as well as she did...

Two of my old housemates moved around the corner (literally) from where we used to live, two of the others were over visiting and all four left the house together. As they were getting in the car four guys drove up with guns, stun guns, and clubs mugged them, bet up the two adults pretty bad, one was kicked several times and the scariest part is they chased the two girls (9 &10) down the road until the girls hid in a yard and lost them. That's the bad part of the story, so they go to the police station file all the reports and stuff and go home. They were all freak out, obvisously, so they were all spending the night together elsewhere, so the two of them who lived where they were mugged, were at home picking up some clothes for the night etc. when all of a sudden they heard people in the court yard, some had just jumped the fence, this not even 2 hours after the mugging, so one of them hit the panic button on the alarm system. The people in the court yard jumped back over the fence (at least 6ft tall) and ran off. A few minutes later armed response shows up and they were talking outside when a cop car pulls up, it turns out that it was the police who had jumped the fence and when they heard the alarm go off, they ran!!!! The police set off the alarm (they didn't know it was a panic button at the time), know their the ones who did and than ran off!!! Seriously! They knew that both of them in there had been mugged just a couple hours before but still thought the best way to get a hold of them was to jump the fence, dumb asses.

The cops had gone back to the house becuase they had thought they had caught the people who did it, and wanted them to come and identify them. So that's fine, they go and do their thing and go back to the house to pick up the night bags. When they drive up they go to park on the side of the street so they can just run in and grab their bags. The car is not even stopped and this little red car packed full of young guys pulls up right behind them, so still being a little edgy the decide to drive around the block and come back, see if their still their or have gone inside somewhere, whatever. So they drive around the corner and this car follows them, they were like that's okay well just keep driving for a while, but this little red car keeps following them and is getting closer and closer. This is when Sarah (the driver) decides its time to lose them and starts flying down the main road going like 80+km/hr going through red lights and all the rest. This little red car full of guys is still following them and keeps trying to pull up beside them. Everyone in the car is freaking out completely at this point, but to make matters worse they look over and at least two of the guys have guns in their hands! They get the girls to lie down on the floor of the car, Sarah is yelling to look out for cop cars, and their going to out run these little fuckers, so like five minutes later their still flying down the road, running red lights but there's an accident blocking the road up ahead, so what does Sarah do she goes up and over the curb to get around the accident. To give you a little perspective, Sarah is the most catious driver she never speeds, would never go through a robot, so this is crazy driving for her. They get around the accident and they think they have lost the little red car and the guys with the guns. So they start looking for a police car on their way to a police station, because they had gotten mugged earlier that night no one had cell phones so they couldn't even call anyone. They are all starting to relax a little when all of a sudden the gun weilding little red car is back and is catching up fast. They see a police van up ahead so they flying for it, when the reach it everyone jumps out of the car and goes running for the police officer. They start telling him about the little red car and the gun crazied men when it pulls up beside them, all four them freak out completely and watch as 5 rather large men get out of this tiny little red car, and four of them have guns out now. But guess what it turns out that the little red car with gun weilding men is in fact police. They had gone to the house to ask another question or something and saw them leave so they decide to follow them and just ask the question when they got where they were going. SMART!! They were all so confused when Sarah took off at high speeds and started running red lights and all, especially since there were 2 kids in the car.

There were 5 police officer in one car, not marked, none of them had uniforms on, they knew that these four people were just mugged and yet they followed them like that. By the way the reason 2 of them had their guns out was because they were packed into the little car so tight that their guns were jamming the guy in the middle. I couldn't make this shit up, there's no way. I didn't relay the story in quite the same humourous manner but it's still funny as hell.

The moral of the story is... when you can find a police officer when you really need to your shit out of luck because it takes 5 of them to ask one question so just assume their busy, and deal with it yourself!

Chivalry

I have been taking the shuttle in the morning to school, I have a few reasons for this. First of all at 7:30 in the morning is not a nice time to drag your ass half way up a mountain, once and awhile sure but every single day, it begins to hurt. Secondly I arrive here in a ball of sweat (nice thought for the day), so it just wasn't working for me. This is okay since I walk home, still get a nice walk which is down hill plus I can shower when I get home.

So this morning I took my shuttle, which is running so much less frequently, as it is summer vacation which inevitable causes a whole slew of curses to come from my mouth. Following what seems like an eternity the shuttle comes, and the three of us who were waiting get on (all female). The shuttle was full, as it doesn't run as frequently (see above) so we had to stand, but the weird/cool thing was that as the three of us were standing all these guys started getting up and offering us their seats. I refused the seat because at heart I am a feminist, and to me there was no reason that I couldn't stand for the five minute trip. The other girls took the seats and at the next stop the same thing happened. I actually find it kind of demeaning sometimes when guys try to be a chevalier and open car doors and things, but for some reason when I saw these guys offering up their seats I found it so sweet. I saw these guys completely differently, to the extend that I was actually checking them out.

I don't know what this has to say about my feminist heart and all, I guess I'm actually a sucker for sweet guys just not to sweet. It is one thing I have to say about the guys here, they do tend to be very sweet and gentle (most, or they are the exact opposite you don't find much in the middle) but to have upwards of 10 guys all giving up their seats was a flash back to the 1950s for me. It is something I really didn't expect, so not a bad way to start the day even if I did have to wait for the shuttle.

Funnies

Cartoons from the Cape Argus I enjoyed.. and their not that far from the truth

Out of the Movies

A guy escaped out of the highest security prison in the country a few days ago, but the way he got out is the craziest thing I have ever heard. He is a Mozambican (really no relevance here except that he was trained with their army which officials believed help him escape), he was charged with 51 cases including murder, attempted murder, rape, hijacking and armed robbery (nice guy hunh?). This is who is out there running around right now, likely nowhere close to me!

But here's the crazy part, he was in the most secure prison and had he's feet and hands shackled. Somehow he was able to free himself from those, stripped, covered his entire body with petroleum jelly and climbed out of a window measuring 20cm x 60cm. But not only that but he somehow was able to dig out around the bars in the window (while standing on the end of his bed, they believe) to be able to get out. Climbed down a few walls, walk around the perimeter where there were at least 8 armed guards, and than scaled a wall next to the guard booth using hooks (the walls looked about 2m). WTF!

I'm probably missing several details that make this an even crazier escape but I watched it on the news last night and I have killed a few brain cells in the mean time. This guy is a scary fucking thing but you do have to admire his resolve and adaptability if nothing else, still I would prefer him to be locked away nice and safe though.

Laundry Day

Yesterday was laundry day, without a wash and drier in our flat I have to go to the Laundromat. That doesn't really bother me except for two things, first you don't do your own laundry, all the laundries do it for you. It is not that I'm going to a high-end places or anything but nothing in this country is self serve. Which in the grand scheme of things is probably a good thing because it does create a hell of a lot of jobs. You have people weighing your fruit and vegetables for you, picking out your bread and even photocopying. Unless I'm at UCT I do not have the ability to do my own photocopying, which again may not sound that bad but when I am more competent to do it than the person 'helping' me is, I do become slightly irritable.

So I drop off my laundry for someone else to do, doesn't weird me out that much anymore but for some reason it did in the beginning. The second problem with the laundry is that I have to sleep in to be able to drop it off. The place doesn't open till 8am, I'm usually at school by then, and I have to make sure I leave at decent hour to pick it up before they close at 6pm. So I guess the moral is if I'm really busy I'm either going to have to be very dirty or sweet talk my flatmate into helping a sister out.

Laundry day is not the most flattering day for me, I'm sure this goes for everyone. It used to be that laundry day may have meant resorting to a skirt, but these days with summer right around the corner (today 28 degrees) those skirts are getting much more action which results in me being covered head to toe on laundry day with clothing that is at least 2 sizes to big. I was coming home yesterday (at a reasonable hour to pick up my laundry) I was waiting to cross the street and some guy comes up besides me and starts hitting on me. Light turns I walk away, but than it dawns on me, he's the first person to hit on me today (well yesterday)! This is an extraordinary thing I made it to 530 with only being hit on once, I must look like crap!

I have heard stories from people who have travelled throughout Europe about how forward the guys are but I can't say for sure but I think African guys are worse. You do not only get hit upon but here you also get marriage proposals. Not so much here in Cape Town (I've only had 1), but travel to more rural areas or other countries (i.e. Swaziland) and you can be getting upwards of 8 or 9 a day (he he, Laura). So with this said I will follow in my friend Leslie's footsteps and develop a scale, this one is to determine on any given day how good I'm a looking...

15-20 guys hit on you within a couple of hours: Your looking smoking, remember this outfit for special occasions
10-15 guys: I'm looking good, good enough to make a first move
5-10 guys: Average day, so don't get big headed
2-5 guys: Maybe you should think about going to bed a little earlier, couldn't hurt!
1 guy: Serious re-thinking to do, unless of course its laundry day :)
0 guys: Crawl back into bed and find a very large bottle of vodka, nothing else will help

As most of you know (or I hope you know) I am not a vain person, I don't even own my own mirror! So please take this scale with a grain or two of salt, and adapt as necessary!

Just posted some photos, their very random and there's still plenty waiting to get developed so if you want a good time waster....
Enjoy!

If you love it, you can complain about it

I may complain a lot, but I do truly love Cape Town. Reading over my few previous posts I realize I may be making this place sound like a mini war zone, it truly isn't that bad but this stuff happens its just part of everyday life. So with that said it's time to complain (a little).

Sometimes (most of the time) I forget that this is a third world country, on one hand you have the latest technology and you can find (although may take a quite a while) anything you want. This weekend we were partying a little, and it was 430 in the afternoon, no one had sleep and somehow I was voted most presentable to the outside world since I had stopped drink about an hour earlier. I asked for two recounts before I actually got my ass off the couch to go to the store. Everyone should be extremely impressed that I made the whole 100 meters without falling, hurting myself or anyone else or without being run over by a car (I can guarantee that by the time I leave I will be hit by at least one car, will kinda sort of did but that's another story).

Of course living in Obz is like living in a small town you cannot leave your house without running into someone, so of course I run into a fellow masters student (not horrible but I do like to keep un-sober me away from people associated with my other life, i.e. school) he looks at me and says 'what the hell are you on', oh I'm just hung-over, at that he gives me a skeptical look and smile and is on his way. I go back to shopping praying (well not praying but wishing) I do not see another soul I know, the shopping list was pretty simple: a bottle of wine, buns and hummus, tomatoes, ice and cigarettes. On a Sunday afternoon at 430 one would think that to fulfill this shopping list would not be a problem right... wrong. The wine, which had the potential to cause some problems because the groceries stores aren't suppose to sell it on Sundays, wasn't a problem at all. The problem... the buns and tomatoes, what kind of grocery store can you not find tomatoes and whole wheat buns. Okay I could give them the whole wheat buns, maybe, but they didn't even have whole wheat bread!! WTF! And tomatoes, who doesn't have tomatoes. This is a common theme for stores here though. You can never guarantee that what you want, even the most basic product will be in stock when you want it. I have never seen stores anywhere else that actually post signs saying, Sorry Temporarily Out of Stock, well you do but not on items like pasta, milk, and bread. What I don't understand is that these are not the small independent little groceries stores, these are large chains that you find across the country. You think if you run out of something you would call up the closest store (the 1 not even a 5 minute drive away) and be like hey can we get some of your wholewheat bread until tomorrow, but unfortunately no. A good rule of thumb, if you find something you love they will stop carrying it for a quite awhile. There is a type of cracker I absolutely love, but I have been waiting for over two weeks for it to come back, still waiting. A berry juice I discovered about month ago (goes perfectly with vodka) has not been in stock since and the weird thing with that is none of the stores have it, I hope they didn't stop making it, fingers crossed.

At least I can experience several walks of life without even leaving my little community, going to the store like a Russian (stereotype I realize) hoping there will be food on the shelves, next door go to the Internet cafe to play on the Internet like a true North American, pass the berkie begging for money (will that could be anywhere I guess), the women who just gave birth at the hospital and is climbing into a minibus taxi with 15 other people to bring her new born home to her shack (not that everyone lives in shacks but there is over a million that do so...) all this within a 100 meter circumference from my front door. Not bad, but still wish I could get my crackers, juice and tomatoes.

Berkie Fights

So you come home and there's this pool of red liquid stuff lying over your front steps, you think nothing of it and step over it and forget about. This happened to a friend of mine, we were later joking 'it looks like someone got murder on your front step', laughing it off. Yesterday my friend gets an SMS from her roommate saying what happened on the front step? Well it turns out there was a crazy berkie fight, and the pool of red liquid stuff is in fact blood, and a hell of a lot of it. She wasn't home at the time, and we're not sure why they ended up inside her front yard on the steps (you do have to open gate to get in there) but there was in fact a berkie fight in her front yard. With the amount of blood on the step I'd say that it is a good thing we live so close to a hospital. She refuses to clean up the blood so does the entire household. It is now 2 days later their still stepping over the large pool of congealed blood. Where else would 4 decent young, relative well bred individuals walking around blood on the front step, and not even be bothered by it. I have to say I walk around it without to much thought. 10 bucks says it will continue to sit there until the landlady comes next.

I have only witness 1 berkie fight before, the damn bastards woke me up one night when they were going at it under my patio. I sleep through anything, literally fire alarms, phones, 7 people partying not five feet away in our lounge, nothing... so for these berkies to wake me explains a lot. I don't think that fight got all that violent because I went back to sleep and nothing else woke me up, but were they ever freaking out. I wish I could have understood more of what they were saying, i would love to know what causes a berkie fight, food or money I'm guessing. Even then most of these berkies are so placid because they get so much crap from people. These guys get mugged more than anyone, you know most of them have been collecting money all day and that they always keep everything on them so they become an easy target. Most of these guys are not insane just slightly crazy, so who knows what they were actually fighting about.

I live just around the corner from where this happened and I walk by everyday back and forth to school, so not even 24 hours proceeding this Berkie fight their was a group of people standing basically in front of my friend's house where the fight to place. I asked what was going on, turns out that some stupid idiot just had broken into two cars right there in front of her house on a pretty main road at 530 at night!!! Can you say stupid, he broke the windows to get in. Cars get broken into every night, no big its apart of life, but a 530 when everyone is coming home and you break windows knowing the cars will have alarms, because ever car has an alarm here. No seriously, my ex-flatmate was driving a 1970s beetle with a alarm system. The worse part, he got away. As much of an idiot as he was, he still got away with it there something to say about that. Coming back to the point that I have become total de-sensitized, three of us were sitting watching a movie we hear a house alarm go off, it keeps going for about a minute we start bitching we'll have to close the window so we can hear the movie than realize that not 1 of the 3 of us even bothered to stand up and look out the window to see if in fact someone's house had been broken into. We wouldn't have had to do anything more than to stand up and look out a window, but alarms get set off pretty regularly and that's what you do pay armed response for but there is something to say about community involvement. After a minute (if it stays on for that long chances are something is up or something weird set it off because obviously the people aren't home otherwise they would have turned it off) 1 of us gets up looks out the window, don't see any broken windows on the house or anything so we close the window and go back to the movie.

But that's the thing living in Obz, its pretty likely you will be mugged at some point or at least followed (happens to me about once a week or so) but to have your place broken into does not happen all that often. A suburb just down the road (where UCT is) is considered a nice area and pretty safe, you basically know you won't be mugged but it is much more likely your house will be broken into. I would much rather being mugged than have my place broken into especially if I'm at home, home is suppose to be safe. Your sitting in your kitchen turn around and having some guy in your home pointing a gun or knife at you would freak the hell out of me I'm sure. Just another reason to love Obz.

Reasons not to be a Lesbien or an adultress

I knew there was a reason I never wanted to move into a all girls dorm when I started my undergrad, girls (women) can be so caddy, vindictive and out right mean to one another. Something I have never understood is why a female would 'go after' another female say when they find out their boyfriend/ husband has been cheating. It's not the other women who made the commitment to you, she does not (in most cases) owe you a thing. There is the moral issue if the other women knew about the relationship or knew the guy's girlfriend/wife, personally I never would be with a guy who was committed to someone but hey that's me, to each their own. But either way this other female did not make a commitment to you so what's your beef with her, sure you can be mad but fuck it's his doing, I can almost unequivocally state that he had agreed to the cheating.

What brings up this rant you may ask, well I just read an article from one of the local papers a second women, that's right there's at least two, who sued her husband's mistress and received a boat load of money. Even if I ignore the fact that the women sued someone over the demise of their relationship, what the hell are the courts thinking. First and foremost the courts in SA are struggling to keep up with the docket and criminals were in fact released because their what courts appearance wasn't in the proper time frame (the police than had to go and arrest them again, I do understand the need to be fair and everything, no imprisonment without reason... but seriously releasing a guy charge with rape without ever stepping in front of a judge seems very wrong). So their releasing rapist but yet they have time to hear cases of women who sue other women who slept with their husbands, and broke up their marriages. What happen to placing the blame on the men who actually made the commitment to you, and let the fucking court system deal with the fucking criminals.

I just heard a few days ago that the jails here are over full again, so guess what the logical solution to this is going to be, release those prisoners who have served at least 15 years of their sentence. No seriously, oh Fred over their has been here for 16 years out of his 50 that he was sentence, I'm sure he'll be good now. So you have been in jail for more than 15 years (before the end of apartheid) and now is free as a bird, with no skills to speak of, a violent past and entering a over saturated job market to compete with people who have skills, have not been in jail for 15+ years and haven't kill/ raped/ robbed someone, humh wondering what line of work their going to end up in...(again). And just imagine the culture shock some of these people may have, things are a hella of lot different now compare to pre-1994, like I don't a constitution, equal rights. I don't know what the answer is, more jails require more money, and why build a jail or 2 when you have to build several very large stadium for the world cup. Well at least I hope they let us know when all these up standing individuals are released, maybe I'll hide out for a few weeks and let all the idiots who are bound to end back up in jail do their thing, and hopefully be arrest again before I come out to play.

Here's a thought for the day...

-A guy got charge R1000 for not having a TV license, another guy (same day) got released on R500 bail while facing murder charges. Therefore you kill the TV licence guy get on R500 bail, you'll save yourself a few bucks. When released on bail sleep with someone, tell the wife so she can sue her which will postpone your murder trial causing you to be released because it took to long to go to trial. Hide out until you hear the jails are full again then get yourself re-arrested, you might have to spend a bit time in jail until the jail gets over full again but hey, you saved yourself R500, and your ex-wife (hopefully she's divorced your ass) has all that money from the women you slept with so try hook up with her again, and you can be living the high life.

Becoming a Follower

I had started a blog on msn when I first got to Cape Town, it (or rather I) ran out of steam. I could never sign on or wasn't available etc... So everyone I know it seems has a blog so I have decided that a blog, albeit following a trend (which I abhor), is a perfect thing to entertain myself during my experiments.

My experiment (affectionately named Seamore) is time sensitive and therefore requires me to run up and down 3 flights of stairs (office to lab) approximately once an hour, sometimes more frequently. This has been going on for approximately a month and a half so far, you think that this would be a great thing as I would tighten up my tush but the thing is that is actually the last thing that I want. As some of you may remember I have no ass, and not to be stereotypical in anyway but living in South Africa with no ass means never finding a pair of pants to fit. I have tried on several hundred pairs of pants and no success (for anyone who has ever going shopping with me knows that 100s of pairs of pants is a phenomenal thing, well than again 3 pairs of pants on one shopping trip used to be as well). So without the black booty what's a girl to do... I've decided skirts would work, but oh wait a minute I can't where a skirt in the lab, so the result when all my Canadian pants have worn out... the saggy butt look, I think I can make it work, well here's hoping.

So Seamore takes up a lot of my time, and it breaks up my train of thought really badly, I just start working and have to go and back to Seamore (clingy li'l bastard) so for those times when I don't want to start anything or just have a few minutes between feedings I thought the perfect solution is a blog.

I was really into my blog when I first got here because everything was so new and exciting and all that crap, which wore off. I realize though that I have become so de-sensitized to Cape Town/South Africa/Africa that things here are actually not that normal, well to Canadian standards. I've just become a heartless de-sensitized bitch (well that's a little harsh). Last night as an example, I went to buy electricity, yes everyone has pay as you go electricity, and phones, and internet etc. All of which does makes sense because of the millions of poor, most of whom would never be able to get credit to get power, if in fact their home has the capability for power or water for that matter. But pay as you go electricity, quite weird, your in the middle of making dinner and the whole flat goes dark... 'oh shit you forgot to get electricity when you picked up the milk didn't you'. This actually hasn't happened yet to me but last night we got down to a few hours left. Thankfully I just happen to glance at the meter as I was running out to the store. This is all besides my point and I will apologize to everyone who reads this because I have a tendency to jump subjects very quickly and jump back again. So last night go to the store get me-self some electricity ('can I have 50 bucks of electricity', never thought I would say that) any who I walk out of the store and see armed response (a security company) beating a guy. I didn't think about it, it wasn't the police, so wasn't that concerned because armed response tend to be very good and they don' t tend to use excessive force. So I walk myself merrily home, without a second thought really. Hours later all curled up in bed I realized you just saw someone getting beat and you didn't even stop to think about it, that is where my de-sensitized bitch persona comes in. But it is different here, there's no question in my mind that the guy did something wrong because seriously armed response don't waste their time if the don't have to, but still beating someone you think I would have at least blink an eyelash for the poor guy. But at least I feel guilty as hell now, that's something right? But than again I do walk by I say 5 to 10 people sleeping on the street everyday to go catch the shuttle, and double that if I walk to school. If they've kicked their foot in the middle of the sidewalk during the night that's okay you just walk around them, seriously. I do give change to the berkies (homeless guys) but I've realized that you can not give it to anyone who you see on a regular basis because than everytime they see you they expect something. So I have a new policy only give to people you have never seen before, its worked so far. If we go out to eat I try (well if asked or I know one of the berkies) give them the doggy bag, so the ones I know may not get money from me but they do get the occasional food. See I'm at least trying to redeem myself in some small way, but what else can I do. Well this is a slightly depressing first blog but it is what it is, off to feed seamore....