A Little Disbelief

The great thing about downloading television shows is being able to re-visit your past, as sad as it may be. I’ve started to re-watch Seaquest DSV, not the best show coming out of the 90s but I admit I had a crush on Jonathon Brandis, plus this was my ‘I want to work at Sea World and train killer whales’ phase, and there was Darwin the talking dolphin as an added bonus.

Watching it now is kind funny, I know you have to suspend your disbelief to watch sci-fi and just enjoy, but they took it over the top. You have cryogenics, aliens landing on earth a million years ago and talking dolphin, pre-historic giant crocodiles unfreezing from glaciers (alive and laying eggs), psychics and so much more!

My favourite part has to be when they refer to the past, which was the ‘distant’ future when they shot the show and is now our present. In 2010 Seaquest time, all beef is outlawed because cattle farming degrades the atmosphere, and we’ve established underwater colonies (aren’t we just special). I do have to give some credit they have a great green message, the underwater colonies, mining, oxygen generators, etc are all necessities because we destroyed our world, so thumbs up for that.

I am willing to throw science out the window for some shows/movies, especially the really really bad monster movies (Ex: Shark Attack 3: Megalodon, Kracken: Tentacles of the Deep and the upcoming Sharktopus (can’t wait!)), but not everyone is. An American physicist is calling for Hollywood producers to tone down the fanciful science, and allow only one major suspension of disbelief per movie.

This would mean no megalodon or kracken, well if believe in monsters is considered suspending disbelief and what about ghosts, angels, gods, devils, Spiderman/ superman etc (all very unscientific). With this we would be left with romantic comedies, because in reality action movies, comic books and even cartoons (how many talk fish do you know) all need more than just a little disbelief. I appreciate where he’s coming from and more movies with good science can always be used, but I think he's suspended all disbelief if he thinks this is ever going to happen.

The guilty former vegetarian

I was a vegetarian for over ten years, and because of circumstance and physical requirements I started eating poultry and fish. Recently its only red meat I shy away from, not so much because of ideology but because of taste. I would love to go back but I have really loved the variety that eating chicken (especially) has given me.

Today I bought some vegetarian pepperoni, I knew I used to love it and found out still do. The flavour is great and it is so much healthier (although I was never a veggie for health, but for my ideals). I was made fun of, had a hard time finding appropriate substitutes, and eating out was a nightmare. But now I think that a veggie life is all about commitment, but I’m not sure I can do it anymore. Eating chicken etc has become so easy I think it would hard to go back.

Today was my first step... I have to finish all the chicken in my freezer first, because I think nothing is worse than wasting food, but after that I’m going to consider my choices.

Piggy, Piggy, Piggy

When I was reading through my old entries, I saw this one post that I had to comment on. We were search for pigs (actually pork, but we did understand the women when she was asking), because of swine flu! This was back in July of 2007, before the global panic; I didn’t even know what it was. At the time they were more concerned about the transfer of the virus to other livestock and had no concern for people in the least, funny how a year plus can change so much.

Back in the fall everything was about the H1N1, how to prevent it, who has it, how many have died. These days there is only remnants of the wide spread fear. Old signs up in the buses, the anti-bacterial gel bottles here and there, no one seems all that concerned anymore.

The death toll is nearly 16000 for 2009, but keep in mind in the US alone over 40 000 die per annum of the flu, so comparing the whole world to the US statistic (as we usually do) not so bad. Want to know why we freaked out... I'd say the media attention but hey what do I know :) . I do realize it was also because it was taking the lives of young healthy people as well, but the reality of it we need something to freak out about (war, virus, terrorism) for ratings so 2009 was all about the swine flu freak out. How many of you as of today are really all that worried about Swine flu? Not many I expect as its not being thrown in your faces every 2 seconds.

A nice cheerful subject for my first post... :)

A New ‘Interim’ Beginning

I started reading through my old entries, and I enjoyed the reminiscing immensely. So I thought a collection of new thoughts for a new ‘interim’ beginning. A new beginning in a new/ old place even if it’s only for a short(ish) time, I’m still living my life and still thinking so what else is a girl in the 21st century to do?

I do not know how often I will update this blog but I think it’s important, it became almost a diary of sorts. There were events, albeit minor ones that I had completely forgotten about until started to go through my old postings. So here we go again...

I'm not demanding I swear

I have nothing interesting to write about so I'll tell you the little story about my few days in Cinsta.

Cinsta was our last stop on the way down the wild coast, only got to spend two nights there and had to start our way back to Durban. We stay at Buccaneers Backpackers, anyone I've talked to says this is the best one in SA, and it was great! We had booked a dorm room before we got there, we had been so lucky and other than the first night we hadn't needed to share a room with anyone else, we kept getting upgraded or just had a whole dorm room to ourselves as it was off season. But unfortunately Buccaneers was a little fuller than the rest so we got to the dorm room released we'd be sharing with 2 other people so to get a twin room was like an extra 10R a night so we decided to treat ourselves. So I we went back and asked for a double room which was fine, she smiled and gave us the keys and sent us on our way. We go down to the cottage and into the room and there was 1 double bed - we had asked for a double and not a twin. So I was sent back up to see about a twin. Again the girl laughed at me, which I realize is par for the course and so we get a twin but they only have one available for that night, but we figured we could sweet talk our way out of that the next day.

So we again move (only next door) this time into our very own house! Very cool. The house was huge and had a balcony on the top floor looking out to the beach (pic 1). We get settled and go up to the bar for a drink and realize we have no coffee for the next morning so off we go to see the lady at the check in for the 4th time in an hour to get directions to a store if such a thing existed in these parts.

She gives us directions - go down to the beach, and walk along until we pass a lagoon and take the first right, and we'll run into it. Sounds simply right... so we get down to the beach no problem at all and walk pass the lagoon and stop realizing the directions weren't as simply as we thought (pic 2) - she must also work for Google map. So we’re standing just beside the lagoon thinking she just sent us to Columbia to get our coffee when we see this little path beside the lagoon in the trees that lead up to a neighbourhood so we figured we'd have better luck up there finding coffee than in the Indian Ocean. Up the path we go and we end up on a little street so we figure that maybe if we take the first right we may indeed find a store, and we did! It was small store but it had coffee and milk and cookies so we were happy. Had a great night just relaxing on the balcony. The next morning we go back up to the office to try and sweet talk our way into keeping the house and our twin room, no luck the house was closed so we got moved back to the double room which we had turned down the night before. We had to share the cottage with 2 NZ girls and realized that’s why the lady on the check in put us there, let’s just say the NZ girls fit a stereotypical look, which I is why when we asked for a double she had the smile. But it was still a great night we had our own room and still a beautiful view of the beach, couldn't complain. I definitely see myself taken a trip back to Buccaneers.

I Heart Obz

For those of you that don't know I live in Obz (Observatory) which is a suburb about 10 minutes from Cape Town City Centre, and I love Obz. It's a student mecca with a Bohemian type vibe (or so they say), I couldn't have found a better place to stay. But like anything Obz can get a little moody on occasion, most of the time it is in a happy go lucky place but it was in a mood last night when I was awoken on numerous occasions, Obz was in a crazy mood. Once Obz gets in a mood everyone whose around will pick up on it and exacerbate the mood, sometimes good sometimes not so good. The not so good is the crazy mood times because really the last thing you need is all of the people around to get a little bit crazier. Take Wednesday night, there was a few berkies who were a little drunk sitting across the road from my flat and they thought that a singing competition at 3am was a great idea. I've heard many of them break into song on occasion but an organised (4 drunks guys on a corner) idol competition was a new thing for me. Never did find out who won as they were deciding in Afrikaans but my vote was for the 2nd guy I don't think he even knew he could reach some of those notes.



A couple of weeks ago I went out at 8 in the evening to run to the grocery store and the moment I walked out the door I was surrounded by bad energy, Obz was in a creepy mood. The creepy mood doesn't happen very often I've only notice it 2 or 3 times in the last year and a half. Everything was quiet and you could just feel something wasn't right. So I walk to the store and watch behind me the entire time you could tell that everyone was on edge. I get home with no problems and a friend comes over a bit later and first thing I say is Obz is creepy tonight and she completely agrees. Later we go out and meet up with another friend who again agreed with us, he was coming in from the highway going to get cash and meet us at the bar, but as soon as he came off the highway decided to go to another banking machine because the bad energy was that intense. How weird is that, three people all feeling the same vibe and so much so that you change your plans? Nothing bad was reported happening that night but there was something around. I can walk home alone at 4am and not have a worry (still know whose around and watch behind me) but this was so strong I was edgy at 8pm.



When Obz is in a happy mood there's nothing stopping it. If you come home after a long day and I'm walking down the street and everyone is happy and joking around even the berkies are happy and will start walking with you just chatting (and not asking for money) it will automatically put you in a good mood. If if I don't talk to anyone on the way home its the energy in the air it just wakes you up and makes you happy.



I have never been in a place that has moods how does a suburb get moods, and how does it affect everyone else around? Just doesn't make sense. I've included a picture taken from my lounge window, so you can get a small taste of Obz....

When you just need a pitch fork

This cartoon that I just had to post... this is a excerpt from my old blog to understand why...

Got lock in my house last night, we have been having issues with our front gate for awhile and it has been fix for about week now but last night we got locked in, how weird is it that all this security is great but you can literally get locked in your house. Christine and I ended up taking a pitch fork to the thing and were able to open it wide enough for us to squeeze out. What a site we must have made 2 girls with a pitch fork and a torch pushing and pulling on this big old gate and laughing.

Sleep Deprived

Not a happy camper today, I was woken up 5 times last night over about a 5 hour period. There was the random guys in a car blowing on sports horn (SA must of won some game) they woke me up twice. Than I had the berkie idols which I would have enjoyed if not at 3am which was proceeded by a large fight accumulating in some guy pulling a 12 inch knife (no one hurt they all went home but still) and than the roommate. So here's a cartoon, today is a non thinking day...

Book Karma

Even in the short time living here I have been finding more and more american things coming to SA. Such as Fear factor SA and now there starting the biggest loser SA. I hate this! Globalization has its place but really the biggest loser, but I guess when a large population of people who are not obsessed about weight lost you have a huge potential market to push all of your weight loss crap on. People (referring mainly females) especially from what I've found black females are very comfortable with their weight and its not an issue. People on TV ie actors, presenters, news casters are not all the typical 'good looking' people they actually choose people for these parts for the quality of the work, its an intriguing concept. But there is nothing I can do about it but not watch it I guess since you know there already shot it and its premiering soon.

The last couple of weeks I've had bad book karma, I haven't found books that keep me interested and I keep settling on ones that are ok because I can't find anything I want to read. So this bad book karma has lead me to watching a lot more TV, you know like 4 or 5 shows a week. In the grand scheme of things this is not a lot of TV but it feels like it because I've watch so little in the past couple of years. But the increased TV watching also means increased commerical watching, commericals on SA TV are actually great.

The commerical themselves are not anything special but there simply and funny. Take one I saw last night its a commerical for cough syrup, there's a kid bouncing a ball in the house and coughing, mum yells from the other room stop bouncing the ball in the house. Than they say something about the #1 cough syrup or something and they go to the after... the kid is bouncing the ball in the house again and mum yells... but here's the thing the kids not coughing. That's where the commerical ends, nice and simple and thoughtful. So until the bad book karma works itself out at least I have my commericals.

Cows

As many of you may know in the past I've had a few cow issues, namely being scared shitless of them. I have to say my fear has subsided. I don't know if it is that I'm not afraid of African cows or that over the years of being forced to walk through a plethora of cow fields has finally de-sensitzed me.

For someone who is bascially a city girl I somehow manage to be surrounded by cows a whole lot, probably has a lot to do with my career choice. Surprized that geology would put you in the vacinity of cows, i've been in cow fields on three contients now due to geology, isn't that an accomplishment.

I always knew that I was not alone in my fear of cows, (its the tongues) but now I have documented proof I'm not the only one. I can feel justify in my feelings of superiority over these girls as I never called for help because of cows (I may in a few incidents hid behind people, thanks Jordanna) but I never ran away from cows (ok, once... but I was alone), but I can now stand near a cow and even want and are able to take a picture.