Things sorted out

My Degree

My results were not witheld! I phoned the varsity, confused. The girl I spoke to checked on the computer and found that the varsity does, in fact, have my certificate. I don't know how considering I don't even have it. But as long as their system reflects they do I guess I'm graduating :).

A place to live

Went to go see a granny flat belonging to Nats's mom's friend. It's practically the same as my flat this year but on a bigger scale. Same tiles but bigger windows, more plug points, a bath, cupboard space *and* a Kitchen Counter! She seemed surprised I was so keen and even though I said "I'll take it!", she told me to go away and think about it. Will phone her in a few hours to tell her I thought about it and I still want to live there.

The holidays

Going to dad for Christmas and New Year. Mom is going to join me at Sun City. For the first time in as long as I can remember I will have mom and dad with me for Christmas. A Christmas with my own family and not someone else's! Transfered money for mom's ticket last night and if all goes according to plan she will buy it today and dad will pay me back when he gets paid.

Presents

Spent most of Wednesday at Sandton City and got the last few at the centre across the road yesterday. Still lacking 1 present: my dad's. But then he always wants socks and deodorant :\.

Post

Mailed a parcel off to Grahamstown yesterday after dealing with weight issues, packaging issues and postal code issues. It should be arriving on the 22nd, just in time for Christmas :)

Things to sort out

• Internet for next year. There is no phone line so going to investigate Neotel.
  
• A bed.
  
• Borrowing someone's fridge? Can't really move in in Jan without a fridge but probably will have to.
  
• I want to buy a washing machine, but don't think I'll be able to afford it yet.
  
• Transport to work. Thinking of the scooter thing again.
  
• A few other things I'm sure I've forgotten

It was quite sweet last night. Steph, Nats's sister, said she was sad I was leaving and wouldn't be with them for Christmas. If you know anything about Nats's sister you'll realise that this is quite something.

Anyway, I don't know when I'll be online again. So in the meantime Happy Holidays :)

It's a public holiday and I woke up at 06:05. At least my sleep cycle has adjusted. I did, however, go back to sleep... only to wake up again at 07:30.

Today's mission is Chrismas shopping!! The list is so long that I don't know how I'm gonna manage to carry it all. I really want to send a big package to Grahamstown though, and that means I must get it done today.

At least I got paid yesterday.

HR phoned me to confirm my details and was like, "Oh you used to blog for us?" (clearly I was still on the system).

"Yes," I said, "you can just use those details". (I know they're correct because I usually just copy them onto any forms that require bank details since I can access them online).

So my salary reference is MyDL Blogging.

Must be the biggest lump of cash anyone's got for blogging on that site ;)

Had a nice office lunch today during which the main topics of conversation were Star Trek, html coding, True Blood and Twilight-bashing. I love working with like-minded people :)

In other not so great news, the uni is withholding my results because I haven't submitted something they never asked for - namely my senior certificate... which I don't have. Fun. Spent most of the morning on the phone trying to sort it out. Seems I can have one in about 6 weeks. Which is fine (since for once I'm not really worried about my results) except that I may not get offered a place at graduation (I'm meant to be sent booking sheets etc). Nats and I figure that it's because I was accepted based on my prelims so never submitted anything afterwards, whereas some kids had to submit final results and therefore the certificate. Annoying. If they had asked a few months ago it would have been fine!

Otherwise things are good. I still feel a bit like I'm in limbo and I miss Grahamstown terribly. But I'm good.

One of the guys in the tech section, by the name of Jai, happens to be friends with some of you(eponine254 and roseph I'm looking at you particularly). One of our new MyDL members happens to be this girl I made friends with at Cow Moon in my last month at Rhodes.

I like to think this is a sign that I am where I am meant to be.

Things are still going well. The higher-ups have requested that we produce 3 original news articles per week which has the rest of the office in a bit of a tiz. They aren't journ people so they've never had to produce articles more than once a week before. Since I've just come out of varsity, they have dubbed me subeditor, which is scary for anyone who knows me because I'm not exactly the most proficient speller in the world.

Nats's mom has found a possible place for me to live, but I still need to see it.

I spent the weekend with my dad at Sun City and it was great. I got a bit of highway driving in, but sadly did not get even the semblance of a tan. Friday was our annual ITWeb Christmas party thingy (although being culturally aware they call it a "year end function") and, being used to Rhodes finger-food and box wine I was very impressed when we were given a three course meal and free cooldrink/beer/cider of our choice. There was, however, one homage to Rhodes - peppermint surprise dessert! One of the news team remarked as I sat down with it, "Is that peppermint surprise?"

"Yes, it is" I said grinning.

"How can you stand that stuff after four years at Rhodes?" she seemed aghast.
I laughed and replied, "I've spent a whole year in digs, I've had enough time to recover from the overdose."

But yes, anyone whose ever lived in Rhodes clearly has the mental image of that peppermint "surprise" burned into their brains (and stomachs)

New job is going *awesomely*, still. Every day it gets a little awesomer.

Today I arrived in the outfit I usually wear to Friars. It's hot and it's also our annual end year function (office Christmas party thing) starting at 12. I was early for work so opened the office with my key, kicked off my high heals, sat down at my ancient (but own) work computer, put on my headphones and began work while listening to music.

Basically MyDL has been one person until two weeks ago. The week before I arrived two really nice people who I've met before (one was with the original MyDL and one was with ITWeb when I interned) were assigned to MyDL. Now there are four of us. Today we had the first staff meeting and we were assigned roles. I am no longer just an intern, I am part of the team. I am doing important stuff. I am the subeditor, I have to produce three stories of my choice per week, I must keep the community happy, lend a helping hand, do some webdev, shoot some video, interview some stars, blog, update twitter... basically help get MyDL up and running and awesome so that the investors continue to pump money into it and eventually it makes ITWeb money.

I want to stay here forever. 1 Feb when I go back to news will suck big time. But in the meantime... *runs off to check out the latest gadget Theo has been sent to review*

Last night: pictures of last night in Grahamstown go up on facebook

Today: Joe (aka MyDL) says to me, "Let me tell you what happened last night. My wife was asking questions about what you look like. So I went onto facebook. And first picture I see of you is you dancing on a stripper pole. Thanks. That really made my wife feel better."

Oops :P.

So far Joburg has been fantastic. Got to Nats's house yesterday and had a nap (long bus trip was long) to be woken by excitement in the kitchen. Steph (Nats.sister) and Patrick (Steph.fiance) went shopping for groceries and went a tiiiny bit overboard. There were about 20 avos, 6 slabs of chocolate, 2kgs of biscuits and just as much of all the less exciting stuff. Supper was salad, steak and lots of avo on fresh white bread. I thought that was heaven. Then I got to work.

On way to work Nats's mom drove through this fantastic mall (yea it has a road going through it) that had a woolworths and a bodyshop and a MacDonalds. And then she parked opposite the MacDonald's and I was at work! So much awesome!

And then I got into work and there was no boss lady and no computer so I sat on my laptop and did guess what? Nano. An hour and a bit of nano. Thank god for nano. And then boss lady arrived and assigned me to My Digital Life.

That's right.

You know, long ago I swore to take over MyDl and save it from the clutches of the hippy overlord? Well... that took less effort than I thought. Of course hippy overlord has already left and now there are some other people in charge. But MyDl has just been revamped into something awesome again and my task for the month is to try get the community going again and make people intersted in it. Had a long chat to the guy running it now and he's really supportive. And the girl who I met when I came here 2 years ago and I thought was really nice? Desk next to me.

Am I dreaming?

God, I hope it stays this lovely.

Well... I have lots of resources including a phone and internet and contacts and stuff. And I just need to blog. Now all I need is the initiative and motivation to blog blog blog :D

Never mind making it out of the yard, didn't even make it into the yard, failed by rolling on the incline start. I've never rolled on an incline start before ever! Now I don't even know how I would have fared, haven't experienced a driving test and have to learn to drive in a whole new town. Learning the route here and all the trouble spots seems like a complete waste of time... and going to the test this morning does too. Bleak.

Went to go hand in my docket book and some shirts that I'd sold at Ginos just now.

While I was there saying soppy goodbyes to all the kitchen staff and avoiding saying goodbye to the waiters ("I will see you tomorrow night at Clive's farewell!"), I decided to get supper. Manager Brian gave me the take away menu and said I could have any of the specials, not only the Thursday one. Which is known as the perk of being a waiter at ginos - any of the specials at any time.

I decided on the monday special - a large pizza with one meat and one non meat topping (aka something I could live on for the next two days). I'd just decided when Brian said, "get a third topping". Mom phoned and I spoke to her while they made my pizza and by the time I'd finished Brian was running around somewhere, so I stood at the cash desk and answered phones and made bookings. People were kind of confused because I wasn't in uniform :P.

Eventually Brian made it to the front with my pizza and then unceremoniously pushed me out the door.

"I still need to pay" I said.

"Bye" he said "see you tomorrow"

...

I am at the moment torn between great love and great great sadness. I don't want to leave!

But at least, as I keep telling everyone, there's graduation.

(Harry the chef asked, "when will I see you again?" and I said, with confidence, "grad. I'll introduce you to my parents." I got lots of hugs from the kitchen staff and I told them all that I'd see them during grad... even though by that time the restaurant may be under new management, they may have been replaced and even if they haven't been... not all of them will be on the shift when I come for dinner.)

I promised myself at the beginning of the year that I wouldn't get attached. When I was still new and I was treated badly and I was angry and self-righteous, I thought that it would be easy to avoid feeling anything beyond cordial working relations. But somewhere along the line... I fell in love. Gruff Clive and dramatic Brian and the craziness of the place stole my heart. And even though I knew from the start that I was going to have to leave at the end of the year... I'm finding it really difficult to accept that never again will I write out one of those yellow dockets with careful spacing so those semi-literate of the kitchen staff could understand; never again will I know the excitement of the cash-up - not knowing how much I've made and preparing to be surprised or disappointed; never again will I try hone my chalking skills by writing up decorative 'veg of the day' signs; never again will I say the words, "good evening, my name is Tallulah and I will be your waitress today, can I get you folks something to drink?"

Never did I think that any of those things would be so satisfying :(

Driving with digsmate to pnp as an extra lesson... was also a disaster. Almost ran someone over and was nearly trapped in the hell called the Pick n Pay parking lot for all eternity.

The guy I almost ran over decided to go over a pedestrian crossing (Grahamstown people know the one, at the one exit from the pnp parking lot) as I was trying to get over that speed hump and then *stopped* in *front* of my car. I know he was in the right (it's called a pedestrian crossing for a reason) but I'd waited for 20 cars or so (no exaggeration) to pass so that I could finally go, so when I could I put peddle to the metal. If he had hurried over I would have gotten over the hump and he would have gotten across and all would have been fine, but no he decided to make a point about pedestrian crossings by standing bullheadedly in front of my car until I had to stop completely (as opposed to slowing down just enough to let him get over) which meant I stalled and we were stuck in the middle of the pedestrian crossing, in the middle of the exit of the busy parking lot with people hooting from all directions. I couldn't get the car going again because we were on a hump and digsmate had to come take over driving to get us out.

Digsmate says that I mustn't worry because that parking lot is a nightmare, but she was still a bit freaked out. And now I can't stop thinking that I don't deserve my license. If she hadn't been there I don't know what I would have done.

Well that double driving lesson was an absolute disaster. Before we even got out of town I would have failed had it been a test. I kept forgetting observations. Then when we got out of town we tried to do a 3 point turn and even with the instructor telling me what to do step by step, I failed over and over again.

Then parking... didn't even touch on parallel parking. Didn't get past ally docking. The fucking car's clutch refused to work so I couldn't change gears. Even on the way home, I spent about 5 minutes using both hand trying to convince the car to go into first, by which time the car had stalled. And yes, before anyone asks, the clutch was in. It was all the way in. When I tried reversing the car sped backwards. So much for clutch control. What control? The clutch was all the way in when it sped backwards too.

I just felt so useless and so out of control the entire 2 hour lesson... and I do my drivers the day after tomorrow. I just want to spend the whole day crying. But I can't. I have to pack up my flat, go to the driving school and try change the time of my lesson tomorrow (have ginos shift at that time because I'm bright that way) and at some stage work on my novel. The driving school is also going to give me my issuing fee money. I think I'll spend it on a cooldrink on the way home. It's so hot today.

I was wondering when reality would hit that I was leaving in three days.

It chose this morning, as I heard the neighbours saying goodbye to Michael.

Why didn't I do more? Why didn't I spend more time here doing constructive things like appreciating the garden and baking? Why didn't I become closer to my digsmates? Why didn't I do any of the things that this place inspired me to do.

Because I was too busy doing everything else.

Goodbye cross street, goodbye missed opportunities, goodbye safe predictable world.

Oddly inspiring though



I never knew the F key thing. Maybe that's what I need to discover to survive moving to Joburg.

So after the last entry I went to work at Ginos.

For most of the day, no tables. Then just before it was time to leave a bunch of tables came in. All of them tipped me nothing or next to nothing. One of them had prawns and calamari and other expensive meals and still only tipped me R3.

Manager Clive, bless him, was just as angry as me and we spent a good half an hour while cleaning the restaurant together ranting and making jokes about what we'd like to do to such clients. As I was leaving he said I should buy myself something to eat on the way home with the money I'd earned. To which I responded, "I'll go buy a cooldrink" and he took pity on me and gave me one for free.

I had agreed to meet Nats at Cow Moon, but when I arrived there they were closed. She'd obviously smsed me, but my phone was at home as it usually is when I'm at work. So I was once again grumpy and I was clearly radiating anger by this point because a nun stopped on the way home to talk to me.

She wasn't converting me or anything. Just making small talk. Was quite odd really. I may have thought her mad, except I am sensitive to "vibes" or energies from people, so I'm pretty certain she is too and walked past me and was concerned I was going to kill something if she didn't give me God's blessing.

On the bright side, the electricity hasn't run out and my computer hasn't been struck by lightening... yet.

Was woken this morning by hooting outside my door. By the time I'd gotten clothes on to go and see what it was about the hooter had left. Nosy neighbourly people said "Oh are you looking for Albany Driving school? They've just left!"

Thanks guys. Yes that was me.

Shit.

As if there wasn't little enough chance of me passing my drivers on Friday!!

Have joined this nanowrimo irc channel which can otherwise be known as Procrastination Central. People post links to all kinds of awesome stuff. And have arb conversations. It's almost as good as DC. Except of course I don't know any of the people irl and most of them are across the globe.

Today's piece of awesome was this:

To the tune of Lemon Demon's "Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny"

Mean old Sylar was hoppin' around
New York City like a big playground
When suddenly Hiro burst from the shade
And stabbed poor Sylar with a samurai blade

This is the ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny
Pete, Sylar, Ted and explosions, as far as the eye can see
And only one will survive, I wonder who it will be
This is the ultimate showdown - of ultimate destiny

Read the entire thing here

Haven't really done much. Been withdrawing into nanowrimo because it's easier than goodbyes.

Had three hard ones already.

First to go was Mikey. Dear Mikey who has gone through journ with me from the beginning. Who used to give me drunk calls and play hangman with me in class until we ran out of paper. To whom everyone is "mad" or "crazy" and called Bob. I said goodbye to him at the Rat and Parrot on Thursday over some quiet drinks. I saw him again on Saturday at Ginos with his family and when he called "goodbye Tallulah" at the door of the restaurant, I pretended that I didn't think it was forever. He lives near Joburg, after all.

Then there was barns, who has become very dear to me this year. He's off to Rome and then Stellenbosch and we said goodbye at beer-o-clock on Friday. He gave everyone posters of a mosaiced clock tower made up of photos of us all. Very sentimental and soppy. I handled it well though, I thought. I'm loving the line "see you at grad". It means it's only goodbye for a few months.

Last night I said goodbye to Graham. I haven't seen him so much this year, and yet somehow it feels like nothing has changed since the first term of first year when we sat next to eachother in compsci and made running jokes featuring internet memes and nerdy puns. He was more than just a friend in first year. He was family. He stayed with me at Sun City and he kept me sane during Fest. Last night we had a big goodbye drinks at the Rat and Parrot. Then him, Zoe and I went to Pirates. Finally we went to her digs where we talked for a bit. She went to bed (still writing exams) and Graham and I stayed up playing Guitar Hero and talking until our eyes hurt. He walked me home and saw my digs for the first and last time. I showed him the album I'd made of my four years at Rhodes. He will also be close to Joburg. I said, "Goodbye, see you soon!" through the security gate as he strolled home.

I will not dwell on it. I will instead try and figure out how my main character can save this plot from complete disaster. Yes. That's what I will do.

Just because everything's changing
Doesn't mean it's never been this way before
All you can do is try to know who your friends are
As you head off to war
Pick a star on the dark horizon and follow the light
You'll come back when it's over
No need to say goodbye
You'll come back when it's over
No need to say goodbye

- Regina Spektor, The Call

( Read more... )

The time of leaving is approaching... I have my ticket. I leave on the evening of the 28th of November. I have to accept this. I sometimes love how my life is like a book. Sometimes I hate it though. Like when violin music started playing as I purchased my ticket in Checkers.

I'm trying not to think about leaving. It's easier to enjoy the time I have left if I don't think about how limited it is. However, there are certain things that I do have to consider. The most important being: Stuff.

It seems storage in gtown is either really expensive or full.

I've decided I'm not keeping any furniture - only my fridge (which will go in jeannie's kitchen for the time being)... but I have so much *stuff*. Books, ornaments, laundry baskets, paintings, clothing. I'm not willing to get rid of it, so I don't know what to do with it.

If any Grahamstownians have garage space, under bed space, closet space, attic space or anything like that for boxes, please could I use some? The plan at the moment is to drive up with dad in April and collect it then.

Alternatively do you know of anywhere else I can store it?

I'm in an odd place at the moment where I'd rather bury myself in work and my novel than think about the future, and yet I'm more relaxed about the oncoming future than I have been in a long time. I don't know what to think. So I won't. I'll do this meme instead:

If you want to participate, just type resistance is futile in your comment and I will ask you 5 questions. C’mon now, assimilate…

Questions from nimnod:



1) When you were a kid, what did you want to me when you grew up?
2) If you could go back and change one decision you made in your life, what would it be?
3) Where would you like to be in 5 years?
4) One thing you're proud of doing?
5) 5 things that make you happy?

( Read more... )

This is what a productive day in the life of Tally looks like:

• Driving lesson (learning parking now)
  
• Ginos shift (conference on at the moment = running around for 2 hours but at least making money)
  
• Answering some nano stuff on the nano forums
  
• Drawing a tree for my website (and it's a very pretty tree even if I say so myself. And bandwidth friendly even since most of it tiles!)
  
• Discovering someone's been using my Internet quota, reporting it to the IT department, getting the quota usage tracked down to a computer, discovering it's someone in my class I logged in for when they were desperate and they've kept on using my quota - whether intentionally or not I dont know.
  
• Changing my Internet password
  
• Going to jeanniewal's for a lovely dinner with her, jona, nimnod, rm-rf and the kids :D (the nano message of today, ironically, was "your social life screeches to a halt")
  
• Doing web dev for final project (now I basically just need content, all the hard stuff is done. And omg I managed to do most of the CSS out of my head!!)
  
• Now to start on my 1600 nano words for the day... well yesterday...