Nostalgia isn't what it used to be

So I am now part of the South African tradition: I have been broken into and had people I don't know rumage through my underwear draw, make of with my most prized possesions (damn jewellery for being so sentimental) and generally scare the shit out of me. Thats right: we had a break in! And here's where the nostalgia comes in: 10 years in our house and not an incident...its silly but i have never been a nervous person, despite the ridiculous crime rate. Stupidly enough I still believed it happened to other people. But alas I am other people. Sorry to anyone who spoke to me yesterday: i was practically packing my bags and leaving the country that nite :) never under estimate the hysteria of two women (me and my mom) scorned by baddies... Anyway shit has calmed down and we have resolved to get a big Fuck Off scary black dog and start setting the alarm (duh), and are putting the imigration plans on hold...until next time :(

So here is the question i pose to you today...Is it possible to feel nostalgic about something you didn't experience? I am listening to Tiny Dancer (sorry...still not over it) and thinking of that scene in Almost Famous *SIGH* I was totally born in the wrong era - I do not want to follow Eminem around the countryside thank you very much, or the Backstreet Boys (ick). Well I am in good company, Mr Dave Grohl from the Foos also gets all nostalgic from this song (although i don't know what he is getting al misty eyed about - the bastard has his own fucking groupies) and did quite an amusing version of it, a sort of tribute to Cameron Crowe. Anyway anyone wanting to hear it, ask and thou shalt recieve (in the form of an e-mail)

In other exciting news: One more sleep until my brother gets here. Yay! Will not be at work tomorrow (whoop whoop) as will be fetching the little bastard from the airport. Who said families don't have benefits?

Little did she know....

Well i went to see Stranger than Fiction on Sunday nite. Wow so amazing. It was just brilliant. I am quite impressed by how Will Ferrel can stretch himself, and Maggie Gyllenhall was fabulously alternative as per usual. I was particularly impressed with her character refusing to pay 22% of her tax because that was the part that goes to national defense and government party kick backs ( you know...the good stuff). ANyway good old Harold Crick is as boring as shit and yet when the wonderous Emma THompson (still one of my faves) narrates his dull little life it takes on this mystical aura - greatness. SHe describes how he hears the brushing of manila file folders as the crashing waves of an endless ocean So my new goal is to find something dull and mundane to narrate everyday (okay lets not be silly, more likely it will happen occasionally when i am feeling whimsical), thereby extracting the magical. Little known fact: I hold in my heart deep desires to be a writer, not a brilliant one (well of course, but again lets not be silly) or insanely rich (ditto) but just enough of one so i can be weird and people will think its charming, and tortured, and people will think its genius, and so that i no longer have to be at work at 7.30 in the morning.

Back to reality (*SIGH) i had an interesting Friday (who me? I know i was shocked to) Went to the Black Forest with Juj and Ta for Nick's birthday. Was good, still love those girls, and there was much amusement mainly caused by a man with a striking look of a garden gnome who decided that Tarryn would want to listen to his eternal droning (i told her not to tell people she is studying psych!) and at one point actually sang "you don't own me" from The First Wives CLub in an attempt to emphasis the advice he had apparently given to his cousin on dumping his schitsophrenic (spell?) wife. As if it wasn't bad enough listening to him talk to Ta he then tried to chat to me (Good God) i said my name and then ducked off to the loo, where i remained in hiding for so long that i actually committed to memory a marketing passage from the back of a can of toilet spray: "Add and extra dimension of enjoyment to the special times you share with those you love" - are they kidding?! Anyway the charming gnome ended off the evening by telling julia that i had told him (apparently during our brief introduction, immediatly succeeded by said toilet duck [excuse the pun]) that tarryn and i are lesbians who do not wash our hair - lovely all round really! Hmmm...

So saturday was a suprise because Ali came down from PMB which was fab. Had the most lovely chilled out day: went to lunch at a nursery in westville, drove out to Umhlanga and walked along the beach and then had dinner at home and watched Roswell until we were too tired to keep our eyes open. Very good day indeed, and so lovely to see that little Alicat.

Okay well thats all from me

Love and Peace

gypsy

Cubicles and Land Invasions - the topics of friday conversation

Hey there Hayley Fans! You will be glad to know that i finally have a computer of my own which is not powered by a japanese hamster running its ass off on a little wheel inside the box. This is a cause of celebration - but the main thrill is from the fact that i have my own cubicle. I never thought i would be so totally stoked to see those fabric, office green coloured walls of capitalism boxing me in, but i cannot tell you the liberation of being able to scratch your arse in private after the horrors of a totally open plan office :)

SO yes i have my privacy, and am revelling in it. I am also now in a space mainly populated girls now and it is in fact quite enjoyable to have the occasional conversation about handbags and the benefits of stilettos VS wedges. Especially after endless sessions of rating on Hot or Not with the other office boys - and the horror when i burst their bubble by telling them that a lot of the unfortunate looking creatures would never have posted their photos on this website, and certainly are not expecting to be rated Hot. But already a joyful thing as happened - us singletons have rallied around and decided that we will not allow the horrors of valentines day to get us down, but instead will be defiant and book a table just for us girls and get pissed and behave badly, rather than going home and crying into our pillows. And this bit of news was certainly needed as at the moment i am supposed to be designing a valentines flyer (bleuch) for some lovey dovey competition crappola!

Cath told me a story today about how the good old grahamstown municipality came around for half an hour at 11 last nite, with a truck fitted with a loud hailer announcing that the electricity in grahamstown would be off between 6 am and 8 am this morning. Anyway she wakes up with a start and thinks that it is a South African Holocaust and that all white people are being asked to leave their homes - as you do. So in order to feel this paranoid little white girl feel better a told her the following story about even more paranoid white girls... While my mom was off in the UK for 18 months we had tenants that were staying in our house. At some point they had to have trees chopped down - the ppl were supposed to come on a thurs but didn't pitch. on fri morn the one chick wakes up and looks out the window and sees all these black guys with axes and saws. SHe had seen a programme on Zimbabwe land invasions the nite before and so immediatly thinks that it is South African version - yes that is the rational response, land invasions starting in the sleepy residential suburb of westville! honestly! But long live paranoid white girls because they do give us endless amusement.

Love and peace and paranoia
gypsy

My generous bestowals

Have you ever felt possesive over a song? you know like you feel its yours and when other people start liking it and it starts getting radio play you get seriously annoyed... i want to be the person to share the song with people you know, like give the gift to people who really are deserving of it. But no, my guilty pleasure is taken away when it starts being whored on 5 fm (i am going to stop apologising for my constant references, i have nothing else to say) and Mtv. This happened to me with She Moves in Her Own Way by the Kooks. It was sent as one of these beautiful gifts by my best friend via email, with the subject This reminds me of you - surely that makes it MINE! And at first i got the joy of generously bestowing it on the deserving. But alas it has been kidknapped by the mianstream and is no longer mine to give. Its not that i don't want these songs to do well - its just that these underdogs are my little projects and when they start being commercially succesful i fear people forget my contribution and my prior awareness to the cause... Think of me as the Mother Theresa of forlorn songs (although i am sure a saint would probably be more humble about her position as defender of the Faith...nevermind)

oh woe is me
ever the martyr
gypsy

ITS HUMP DAY!!

Now before you all get excited and think i am being diRRRRty (thank you xstina for ruining that word forever) anyone who listens to 5 (honestly i am not really a fan but it just keeps coming up)will know that wednesday is hump day. Hump day because it is in the middle of the week and after the 'hump' its all downhill (in a good way) to the weekend. WOO HOO!

Yeah so the weekend is on its way and what shall i be doing? hmm... jetting off to a film premier? rushing to the front of a line of a new and exciting club (because i am on the list of course)? taking a long romantic walk on the beach with Mr Right? *SIGH* is it obvious i have no plans - its so weird coming back to a place you have lived all your life and knowing no-one. Although the Ali and Carla children may be coming down for the Duzi. Now who in their right mind is going to say no to canoe-er guys (?!) with their shirts wet, or better yet no shirts at all. I mean i am not really that keen on Jock Soc - but lets face it, its fun to look.

Continuing with my critique of valuable television i am going to say that i am an Everwood convert (its reshowing on SABC3 - better late than never right?). Now i realise that it is corny and idealistic and kinda makes you wanna vom a bit with the rural charm of it all but i must say the looney dad who talks to his dead wife, and the (obligatory) moody teen who actually has some quite good put downs for the jocky boys, do make for interesting viewing. Plus Treat Williams is a bit of 'treat' for an old guy.

But its not all TV - i am reading too! Although i seem to have fallen off the intellectual bandwagon - sorry Mr Wilde and Mr Coehlo - what with the availability of my mom's bookclub brain trash. I am reading murder mysteries by the bucketload, mainly for the tips they offer in case my boss askes me to deep etch one more fucking thing :)


Wow this guy that we call the biltong beast is here - he is built like a brick shit house - just muscles galore and he sells biltong. his life consists i am sure of gym and dried pieces of animal.

Lady X who works at The Company has just gotten back and hasn't seen him before and we were all having a bit of a snigger and she snaps at us: "Hes just trying to make a living!" I was like okay, but did no-one ever tell you that insanely shaped, bulgey men carrying half a cow worth of biltong are funny? And honestly, its not like she is Lady sensitivity. She was so insensitive to a guy asking for money for a cornea transplant for his daughter early today, i thought she was going to drop kick the poor fucker out the front door. I mean the bastard showed up with afidavits (spell?) and everything. Grr Arg!

Okay enough with that load of old crappola. Am at the moment staring out the window onto fields hill under iron grey sky - nice weather for ducks

love and peace
gypsy

I'm BACK BABY

I am back - it has been over a year but its time to start posting again! Its not that i haven't had anything to say for the past year, more like a lack of interest. But nothing is a better motivator than boredom and i seem to have a lot of that around here! Not that i am complaining - at least i have a job and am not part of the great unemployed.So here i sit at The Company waiting for something to do and then it hit me like a bolt of lightening...why don't you continue to share your stories of great tedium with the rest of the world (especially the people who like u enough to read this crap)...and so here i am, in the blogosphere! ANd while i have your undivided attention i would like to complain about Parys Hilton - how dare she make music!!! i know its a bit late and this noise pollution has been going on for a while - but i have just come back to the world of mainstream music thanks to our 7.30-4.30 5fm listening session, and realising the true extent of the HORROR! Bloody hell - she is constantly in our face, how dare she be in our ears too. I mean all that synthesised rubbish has got to rot the brain.And as for Beyonce - that "to the left" thing is a severe waste of oxygen - why is this crap getting radio play? if no one played it no one would know about and therefore no one would buy it and then no one would play it - see we just need to stop it at the obvious place in the viscious cycle that is pop music.
So, sadly the highlight of my sad little life appears to be Scrubs - thank god for JD and Turk and of course for Doctor Cox - he is such amusement all over. God what fabulous little speeches he makes - i would love to be able to so firmly put someone in their place. You know like in Amelie when she wishes that there is someone on the sidelines whispering clever comebacks to shyer people. Well i want the scrubs script writers whispering mine (not that i am professing to be a shyer person but how great). but i am loving it, have just finished season 1 and am considering purchasing the season 2 DVDs with my first (REAL) paycheque. woo hoo for being paid!
Okay well off to dinner with the Carin child tonight - she has made lasagne (which was not originally intended for me, in fact i am plan B but we won't hold that against her :) and it will be good to catch up. I am missing all my little RU people. Chris phoned today and he has sold his car (GASP*) and is off to Korea in like a month - ick i feel sick! I am going to miss him very many! I must say i am sorry that he sold his car if only for the reason that it must have meant cleaning and lets face it that Civic was a monument to crap - never again to be seen.
Oh well we must move on.
love and peace to you all
gypsy

Catch Up

Well it has been a while since i posted anything - sorry to all my fans just waiting for information of my fascinating existence (pretty much just Cath)!! Since then i went to see the Foos - wow so amazing, words will not do them justice...Dave is very amusing and we even got to see him drum...twice! An other worldly experience i tell you! Alas he did not propse to me - probably because we were so far away from the bloody stage and therefore he did not get to have that "first sight" moment.

As you can see from the pic we were hardly on top of the stage here and that black ant is Mr Dave Grohl. But Earl's Court is a stupid venue full of pillars and we were just lucky that we didn't get stuck behind one of them!

Glasgow was so cool - the pic is of a statue outside their musuem of modern art and apparently it has become a druken tradition over there that everytime someone takes down the traffic cone another merry mob comes around and puts another one up! Rory and i had so much fun jamming with our new adopted cousins - and if anything i am even more sure that i want to end up in this wonderful place full of people much friendlier than in London. Christmas in wee bonnie Scotland was lovely and full of Short bread, whiskey and a couple of kilts (however i didn't ask any of them what was under theirs - waiting for caro to get here and do it for me). Got a hair straightner, however after and afternoon, ending in frizzy hair and me with arms like arnold Shwzanneger (spell) i realised that it is unlikely i will use it for anything, other than my fringe, very often :(

New year was great fun but a bit of a dog show. Now don't be shocked but i was slightly tipsy (Ha ha ha) and ended up falling over in a bar and into a puddle of mud in a park in Wimbledon or something. However was a good way to bring in the new year - although i am not quite sure why anyone would like to make a fresh start with one on the biggest hangovers they are likely to get that year???? Still the years most overrated holiday but anyway :) Here's to a fucking fabulous 2006 - am totally over 2005!

The FOOnal Countdown

There are 3 more sleeps until foo fighters and i am just so terribly excited - Yay! Today has been a really good day (apart from when a drunk guy tried to hug me in the Underground - wasn't so much in the hobo outreach sort of mood) i found an awesome pair of cowboy boots (yay) and had a really nice sandwhich from Marks and Sparks - plus i got a whole lot of work done this morning so that means that i will probably get to go home a little earlier. Tonight the family (ah sweet) are going to see the Chronicles of Narnia - and i don't care what anyone says - I am super excited! Gotta love CS Lewis and his ability to make up a story that starts in the cupboard! Everyone is seeing this psuedo Christian imagery and i get it (hello Aslan the christ figure what with dying for Ed and then getting resurrected - kinda creepy) But i think it may have a whole other level...all these people stepping out of the CLOSET - a boy beguiled by the furs and jewels of the white witch?? Me thinks i see a gay morality tale!!! Not really, but i am just preparing the world from the sort of ranting that is probably as i speak/type forming on the lips of the rabiddly politically correct in this country and all the other demented Western ones!
But back to the real world - i still have not started that phone job which means that finances over xmas may not be as smashing as i hoped! Money is no problem as long as you have some of it hey?
So now i sit here with very little to do other than write this crap that no-one really reads but just gets lost in the great vault of text contained within the imaginary world of the internet. What a sad little life! But at least its better than playing hours of solitaire (pecker) mindlessly - here i am adding to an ever growing body of useless information - for which i should be thankful because if it wasn't for completely useless information, most of the time i wouldn't have anything to say. Its quite disconcerting how little useful information i know. I am reading a book now called "Life of Pi" about this young boy who ends up shipwrecked in a boat with a Royal Bengal Tiger, and i have been thinking that i know none of the common sensical things that might help me in such a situation (minus the tiger of course cause that ain't gonna happen twice) - like lighting a fire, fishing, weighting a rod (no not that type of rod!!), when something is poisonous etc etc etc So when someone next asks you who you want to be stuck on an island with - when i am your obvious choice because of the hours of useless information (haha) think again and ask Anita if you can borrow Willem should the need arise!

Christmas time, Mistletoe and Wine...La La La

Hello my lovelies. I am here in the UK and so happy to be back with my good old family but missing you all like crazy (Grahamstown is a true testament to Absence making the heart grow fonder huh?) am so miserable that i have had to miss Carin and Nikki's Birfdays - Happy birfday for yesterday my Carin child! It is so much easier to be Christmasy over here probably because of the weather. I took this picture last night we went into london and saw all the little twinkly lights up on Oxford Street. The bus is a number 159 and those types of busses are about to become a part of the past as they are stopping running on Friday (tomorrow) - they were awesome because you could jump on and off them at the back if they came to a stop at traffic lights or something - its sad. We also went to see the big Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square - Every year it comes as a gift from the people of Norway as a thank you for British support in World War 2. We have decorated the house and been Christmas shopping and i am listening to White Christmas as we speak.
I have gotten my little unemployed ass a job now - i guess its pretty different from what i would have thought i would be doing but it certainly will be a challenge and a new experience. The lady i am working for has cerebal palsy and i work as her support worker in order to do her typing and take notes for her in meetings etc. I work for pretty good money twice a week, and am going to be working at a call centre (ZZZ) the other days with a whole bunch of low class dog types - but what the hell hey - its money!!
Exciting News: Woo hoo the other day Jude Law walked right past me on the street - he had just come out of a first nite in one of the theatres near Leicester Square. Oh and Rory seems to have found himself a girlfriend - Shes a blonde, German girl called Tina but he won't let any of us meet her yet - apparently families are particularly embarrasing to 19 year old boy - but he seems pretty love struck and even finds the German accent sexy (Bleuch!) So who knows??? Other wise - there are many many hot men around here but i have a sneaking suspicion that many of them are gay (or worse - Greek!) So i just have to wait until the 16th when i go to see the foo fighters and Dave Grohl falls in love with me :) And then i will be rich and famous and you will all have to book appointments to see me!

"We don't do body counts" - General Tommy Franks

Well that seems to be a challenge extended by General Franks (Wow that is the most testosterone charged name ever) that the good people at iraq body count have taken up (http://www.iraqbodycount.net/). It just seems so sad that in a war people are not concerned with civillian casualties. I mean here in good old South Africa how much can we know about American politics and how much does it concern us right? The point is a whole lot as they are the world super power, able to pretty much at will influence any country in the world, especially those of us in the third world at the mercy of the world bank and the IMF.
Apparently the political philosphy that condones rabid millitary action is neo-conservatism that has over taken the white house. Ne-conservatism, a really interesting buzzword that we should all understand is constructed mainly around a foreign policy with these basic tenets:
An aggresive foreign policy that denounces the passive isolationism of the 30s and the soft love of the Clinton administration.
This foreign policy prides itself on Pre-emption: a sort of "we gonna hit you before you can hit us" if we think you are a threat. This action can be taken multi or unilaterally if neccesary. This is a similar stance as that taken by Blair in Britain, however frequently it seems that in the case of the 2003 Iraq war, that the threat has been fabricated or based on false information (WMD and terrorists?). It is not difficult to lead the American people when already about 72% believe that Saddam Hussein was directly involved in 9/11. And now instead it seems that the invasion of Iraq has in fact just created a more furtile environment for terrorism to take root due to widespread anti British and American sentiment. I understand just as much as anyone the need for justice but lets look in the right places. (?!)
Another apparent goal is the spread of freedom and democracy. Strange then that the US are now looking for 'exit strategies' - its fine if they don't want to spread democracy and rather make it safe for their freedom but then lets just call a spade a spade. But we have already established that this war was not about a true threat posed by a country that was financially crippled and without the supposed Weapons of Mass Destruction. Besides apparently democracy comes through free market and free trade, allowing Bremer to attempt to introduce good old MacDonalds and General Motors. Hmm - oil and hamburgers?
I think that the true motives behind this war (and any subsequent others) can be found in the military-industrial complex and through the Rumsveld-Cheney-Wolfowitz founded Project for the New American Century (http://www.newamericancentury.org/ ). Lets make the world safe, I understand why we want this safety and justice for acts committed by terrorists, but surely it would be better to pour such resources into infiltrating Al Queda and not just destroying countries and killing civillians whose offspring will only grow up hating us even more than their parents did.

Ah the sadness - I think that i have finally lost my sense of humor. Designing this Grocotts' supplement is killing my spirit bit by bit! We worked the whole of yesterday afternoon, expecting to come in at 2 today and leave by three but alas now it is 5 past 5 and Jis and I are still here in this sad little land:( I have a history essay due for tomorrow(the last one) and i haven't started yet...Boo Hoo! This is what we call a pity party. On the plus side this has been an extraordinarily rewarding experience that i will not forget in a hurry. Working with the students from Mary Waters was wonderful and i would do it again in a heart beat. Exams are coming and i am really just seeing them as an obstacle to gettting to the UK. Today there are 32 more sleeps until i go (I think that this counting my just be a form of torture). Then its working, and some money and Scotland for Christmas - Woo Hoo for kilts and whiskey and shortbread and that accent.

Yay for winning new phones

Well yay for my little (6ft3?) bro, Rory, who won a phone (no its not a coincedence - thats the one pictured). Woo Hoo! i would like to win my degree so i can get out of this Godforsaken town - not one of my favourites at the moment!
We did have a very interesting debate in Journ today... How much should public journalism center around ideas in the head of journalists, and how much should be a representation of what the people themselves want to see? Should we be concerned with the 'issues' and uprooting inequality and foul play in their own community if its not something they themselves are that interested in. For example our JDD (Journalism, Democracy and Development) group are in the process of doing a story about matric dance story...Where is the journalistic merit in that? But girls in Standard 9 more than likely want to hear about it. ANd if in that story we can manage to slip in something that higlights the differnce between this celebration in Grahamstown East and West then all the better. I think we were all hoping for such interesting content and never before covered ground with this paper, however we still appear to be restricted by language and news values. Personally i don't see why a group that has the capacity to report in XHosa shouldn't - and i would welcome content from our workshops that is worthy. But here we pose another problem - what is worthy? It seems the questions here are endless. Our group i think is having the most rewarding experience with our workshops. The students are enthusiastic and interested, and thats such a change from the jaded students we are usually surrounded by. Perhaps what Siya said today is true - if you have nothing then any little thing seems amazing - however that does not take away from the validity of that feeling. And if people are being moved or moved to action, even debate, by our paper then what should be concernign us is the fact that that may stop when we are no longer producing it!
But while we (who?) are discussing journalism...
By an unfortunate typographical error we were made to say last week that
theretiring Mr Davids was a member of the defective branch of the police force.
Of course this should have read: "The detective branch of the police farce."
(from a New Zealand paper)

snow boots and three layers...i shouldn't be allowed to get up this early

Grr Arrg! Have tried to keep Journalism out of this sacred place but alas at last it has one the battle and i can be strong no more...AH this JDD crap is driving me crazy - today i got a phone call (after all we should be on full journ at all time!) to come and change one word to lower case before it goes off to be printed -Hi um i have other lectures, and a life and the desire to sleep - what is wrong with these people and Damn Rod and his belief that things can be edited in PDF format (Snort!)
Otherwise, have had a terribly dull history seminar about ideology (however, according to Prithilla it is now prenounced idiology (yes there was a memo going round but apparently only her and Nevenka recieved it!) and i have dressed today for an arctic onslaught and the bloody sun has come out - Grr Arrg! its really not my fault however because i got up at 7.30 and as one who usually only rises at about 11 i didn't realise how the temprature 'evolves' throughout the day...Bugger!

Weather forecasts are horoscopes with numbers

This statement is somehow particularly true in Grahamstown - in fact i feel sorry for the little weather dudes in this part of the world! This town is truelly meteorogically (wow big word for this early in MY morning) schitzophrenic - Caro's dad said something about a plateau and a valley and cold fronts and hot fronts, but i think that it may just be another eccentricity of this funny little town.
Oh and how great is this...
"Love is sweet as summer's showers
Love is a wonderous work of art
But your love, O your love, your love...
Is like a Giant Pigeon
Crapping on my Heart!"

We need a holiday...Quando Quando

Sadly all here in the new media labs are losing it and singing that bloody Quando Quando (x2) song (see Laura's comment on the welcome thingy) (is it Tom Jones? - we're looking into it) No apparently it is some oak called ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK - what is that? Wow, this is what was wrong with the generation before us, if they can buy records from someone with the kakkest name ever what chance did their offspring have? Urrg and don't get me started on Tom Jones - this was a dude who never got out of his polarnecks and jackets - Kah! Anyway - have been procrastinating at new levels this week and have found myself watching old episodes of Ally McBeal... and now you will get my point... Have forgotten how much amusement there is to be had in that freaky dancing baby and all her neuroses! Oh and my dear Jewish friend Carly has just informed me that we are in the year 5766 (since Adam and Eve) so Mozeltof everybody!

Me and the Family in the UK in July

This is a pic of me and my family peeps in July this year - its the first time all my mom's siblings have been together in something like 18 years (crazy man!)

Welcome

Hi guys. Well this is terribly exciting now isn't it! I have been a new media student for about 9 months and have decided that it is time for my very own Blog! This is basically me getting in touch with my inner computer geek - very exciting! Anyway hope to hear from all my peeps soon! PS - why the name, i have no idea? I think that i may have heard it somewhere else before but its really cool so there!