Pfangirl Through the Looking Glass

I’ve been too busy or away from the PC to update my blog over the Christmas period, so here is a summary of what has been going on over the past week, with a few pics. Despite finishing my shopping early on the week of the 19th December, I found myself at the Pavilion and Musgrave shopping centres, typically to catch up with friends I hadn’t seen for ages, including Hayley and Greg, and Ashley. Fortunately, our get-togethers tended to be around 9am, early enough for most people to still be getting going for the day. Although the centres didn’t feel too chaotic inside, parking was stop-start nightmare any time after 10am. I tried to be home by midday, and off the roads. Friday evening was my Christmas get-together, and it actually turned out to be very well-attended: me, Paul, Mark, his sister Lauren, Gareth (accidentally groping Shirley during the evening) and Denbeigh, G and Shirely, Hayley and Greg, Warren, Bronwyn and, back for Christmas from the UK, Scott Miller. Ash, Lara and Kirs...

I went to see The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on Tuesday with Paul and his cousin. The film is a spot-on adaptation of CS Lewis’s children’s story / Christian allegory, right down to the little details, like how many mothballs fall out of the wardrobe when Lucy opens it and the titles of the books in faun Tumnus’s home. My mother reads The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to her class every year, and I was raised on the Narnia series as well. When Aslan, the lion, appears for the first time in the film I was overwhelmed. Looking at the film, I would go so far as to say it’s more fantastical (and colourful) than Lord of the Rings which limited the diversity of it inhabitants to humans, ghosts, hobbits, orcs, Nazgul, dwarves, elves and Ents. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the variety of magical inhabitants is far wider. One exciting, strategic battle scenes involve centaurs (stunning in their visual realisation), minotaurs, hags, griffins, fauns, ...

Not much on the personal news side. After I got back from seeing Hayley, a school friend, and her husband, at the Pavilion on Tuesday, I pretty much played Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones the whole day (breaking, of course, for the Survivor: Palau finale. The Prince of Persia games always put my life and other hobbies on hold. Anyway, in terms of Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, this is thee worthy successor to Sands of Time, the first in the newly revived Prince of Persia franchise. The plot involves many of the same characters from Sands of Time, and is a lot more straightforward than the horribly convoluted time-travel tale that was Warrior Within, the second game in the series. The Prince has redeveloped a personality (and his Sands of Time voice) after his grunting, bland incarnation in Warrior Within. Voice-overs and the use of a story teller (a device from the first game) to advance the plot, are also back. Most importantly, in The Two Thrones there is perfect balance betwee...

I went to the post office today (Monday) to collect a parcel waiting for me. Ian had said in an SMS, and on MSN, that he was sorting out Christmas presents for everyone. It tuned out that mine had arrived. The brand new Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones is now sitting on my bed. I am very keen to play, and get right back into my favourite game series. However, I know that as soon as a start, I won’t actually get anything done for the next few weeks at least. And there’s the big decision of playing it using the keyboard or with my gamepad. Regardless… to Ian, thank you for your generosity. It really is endless. We’re all looking forward to seeing you again. And now I’m going to go and help my mother with preparing salads since we’re having a braai tonight for my father’s birthday.

Christmas is only a week away and the long weekend was really a start to holiday spirit and relaxation. I think it would be a bit boring giving a day by day account, so here are some of the highlights, in brief. End of year University of KwaZulu-Natal marks were made available on Thursday. Of course, the phone and Internet systems crashed under the influx of students after their marks. As a result, I only found out my marks on Friday morning. Anyway, I received 84% for Media & Communication: Strategic Corporate Communication and 85% for English: Gender and Writing. I worked my ass off for the horribly airy-fairy Strategic Communication course, so that mark was understandable. I am a little confused about the English mark though- it sounds 10% too high. I went into the exam on around 78-80%, and I thought one of my two essays was complete waffle. I was expecting 76% for the exam at the highest. Maybe moderators were upping marks- I have no idea. Meanwhile, my sister meanwhile has co...

Apart from Paul’s grandparents and his sister, I’ve pretty much finished my Christmas shopping. I’ve spent the past few days mostly fiddling with Premiere, editing 2+ hours of animal footage from the Kruger National Park holiday I went on with Paul and his family back in July. An hour long DVD is going to be my present for Paul’s parents. Anyway, after editing the film together in Premiere and enduring the 10 hour rendering time, I’m now currently playing with Sony DVD Architect. G introduced me to the programme and it’s fantastic. It seriously is a professional DVD creation tool, allowing for animated chapter selections, music playing while menus are on the screen, and it is even possible to insert a little introductory logo or copyright notice before the main menu loads up. Today (Wednesday), I received my Christmas present from Paul. Or, rather, I chose it and will have to wait until Christmas Day to see the presents again. I’ve been needing new casual-wear sneakers for a while now,...

This blog is developing a severe case of bipolar disorder. After how down I was feeling yesterday afternoon, the rest of the weekend was actually very nice. Just before I headed down to Paul’s place on Saturday evening I bumped into Ian on MSN and it was great to have a chat. I’m sure he was similarly relieved to find someone online. Anyway, I’ve decided that from now on Ian is going to be known as Sankey Claus because of his generosity- he even generously topped up my airtime for me. At Paul’s, G and Shirley were there and it was nice to see them too. I’m really happy that Shirley is now at a place that recognises her design talent and actually treat her like a human being. The EvilCorp experience, I think, tends to leave a bitter aftertaste in terms of believing that there actually are good companies out there. As another bonus on Saturday evening, we got out of watching Top Secret, and instead watched several episodes of The Family Guy. I really love that show. Plus, late in the eve...

Saturday afternoon, 10 Dec You know, I’m so tired of this. Anyone who has been reading this blog will know how sensitive and emotional I’ve been lately, particularly to being left out of and missing social activities. I was having a really good Saturday (I’d seen Paul on Friday evening; we’d had fun and everything), and I was looking forward to spending the evening with Paul doing something social, whether with the usual gang, or Paul’s cousin. Afterwards, I was thinking of doing something romantic / sexy for Paul. At this moment in time I don’t even feel like going to Paul’s house. I’ve been crying again even since I phoned Paul’s house to be told that he had gone to the beach that morning with G and Shirley. I phoned Paul on his cellphone and immediately receive a joyous account about how they had such a nice day at the beach, enjoying the fresh sea air, complete with going afterwards for jam doughnuts. Everyone sounded so happy on the other side of the line. I’ve wanted to go for th...

After yesterday’s very focused shopping expedition at the Pavillion, I’m approaching the end of my Chrismas shopping (with 2 weeks to go). I would say that my bank balance has dropped a bit, but I forgot that my sister and I tend to split the costs of presents (despite me usually doing the investigation and buying), and the boyfriends also contributing, so I’ll be getting a bit of money flowing back into my purse. Anyway, I have no idea how fascinating the following will be to anyone but myself, but here’s the Christmas present run-down. For my mother: A 128MB memory stick A homemade refill for her CD box desk calendar A Christmas book I found at the Kloof SPCA second-hand bookstore For my father: The Old Mutual Cricket Annual Cadbury’s Whispers or a pool thermometer (still to get) For my sister: The Pig Out drinking boardgame For my grandmother: A Woolworths T-shirt Cadbury’s Whispers For my uncle and aunt: A new golf glove A strappy top from Edgars (Possibly some nice coffee or the T...

Beware spoilers if you haven’t read Harry Potter and The Half-blood Prince. Oh, and please feel free to circulate this around is it tickles your funny bone. Bird Flu Strikes Hogwarts A Daily Prophet Exclusive In the latest in a run of bad luck for Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, avian flu has plunged the school into chaos. Dozens of students and at least 2 teachers have been admitted to St Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries after their fevers and severe chest colds did not respond to conventional treatment. Unconfirmed reports suggest St Mungo healers are baffled about the disease, which has already killed over 70 people in Asia. Apparently healers are even consulting with Muggle doctors about how to combat the highly contagious illness. The Ministry of Magic has refused to confirm these rumours. Until now the wizarding community has been untouched by the bird flu panic sweeping the Muggle world. Apparently the epidemic at Hogwarts stems from close contact...

It’s a weird situation with Paul right now. Sometimes when I talk to him on the phone, or see him, it’s like things are back to normal. Then there are other times where I am not happy at all. Like Wednesday night for example. Granted I wasn’t really in the mood to go out anyway- I was relaxing on the couch watching the Ben Stiller / Drew Barrymore black comedy Duplex- but I heard nothing about the plan of going out to Burn (Mark had mentioned it on Sunday but since I didn’t hear anything, I presumed it had fallen through). When I SMSed Paul before going to bed, apologising for not phoning, I received the surprising reply, ‘I’m at Burn… Yeah… Came with Mark… At moment playing spare wheel’. I was more annoyed than upset by being shut out. Mostly I was wondering if Paul had said anything about why I wasn’t there. I just think that at the moment Paul seems to be attempting to enjoy the best of both worlds- having a girlfriend while fantasising about singledom. Although it’s not usual, he l...

Paul and I saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire last night, and while it’s definitely a good, watchable film, it definitely had faults. Of course, anyone reading this blog entry needs to bear in mind that I really enjoy the books, and have just finished re-reading Goblet of Fire, so I’ll be a bit uptight about fidelity to the novel, and the way I always imagined things. Also, please beware Spoilers below. On the positive side: - Out of all the Harry Potter films, Goblet, despite showing the least school work of all the films, really captures the sense of Hogwarts as a school: there are the popular groups, the boys making snide comments about ugly girls, the emotional chaos caused by school dances, gossiping during silent study sessions etc. The school atmosphere was very credible. - The Weasley twins and Neville Longbottom finally received the handling they deserved as likeable characters, and not just simple comic relief. - Madame Maxine, Rita Skeeter and the Rasputin-like Karkarof...

The weekend was a hit and miss affair. Mostly miss as I sat at home the whole time until Sunday evening, and was woken at 5am on Saturday with a touch of gastro/food poisoning (I blame Centre Court at the Pavilion, where myself, my mother and my sister had lunch on Friday). Anyway, After Paul’s big relationship talk on Thursday I promptly didn’t hear from him for a few days. I knew he was going to be on his sister’s farm on Saturday (taking G and Shirley up to do graphic design for Megan’s horse therapy company), either heading up there early on Saturday morning, or late on Friday. So I wasn’t too bothered that I didn’t hear anything from him then. I was mildly annoyed when I went online on Friday evening and discovered him on MSN. It turns out he was going to the farm early on Saturday but hadn’t bothered to call me and tell me that he was sitting at home. The kicker was Sunday morning when I received an SMS that he was going back up to the farm to help his father with manual labour ...

I finished May Payne on the hardest Dad On Arrival setting, where you have 7 saves per stage. I’m not even attempting New York Minute, where you have a minute to complete every stage. It’s just too damn difficult. I hate games with time limits. Anyway, my time filler game of the moment is the deluxe version of Zuma. I just had to beat my sister’s highest score at the addictive puzzle game, but I can’t seem to get past Level 9-4, which I presume is 3 or 4 stages from the end of the game. Other than that I’m torn between carrying on with Knights of the Old Republic (which, once I’ve completed, I can delete off my PC and open up some space), or, move onto Max Payne 2, or even a Hitman game. But then Prince of Persia 3 is coming, which might scupper all of these plans. So, of the brand new games coming out, definitely on my ‘To Play’ list are: - Prince of Persia 3: The Two Thrones (I adore the acrobatics/puzzle solving/combat combo of the series) - Total Overdose (Mexican GTA meets Max Pay...

I pretty much have ideas for everyone in my family for Christmas. Paul’s family is another question but the usual plan is for Paul to do the buying and I attach my name to the tags. In turn, I add Paul’s name to my presents to my family. Anyway, I’ve got a few options for presents for Paul from me. I’m definitely having his company logo embroidered on a cap to give him some alternate headware to his browny-grey, formerly black, Tool cap. As for the remainder of his present I’m torn between buying him one or two DVDs that I know he’d like (things like Snatch and There’s Something About Mary)… or… maybe a copy of the Worms 4 Mayhem game. The latter would be something we could play together. So, instead of flipping a coin, I’m asking my blog readers which idea they think is better.

On Thursday night, late, Paul and I had a long conversation about our relationship. Apparently Mr Cancerian has been brooding over ‘us’ for a while, but was waiting until exams were over before discussing anything with me. The abridged version of the whole thing is that we’re not breaking up. However Paul isn’t sure where we’re going as a couple. Honestly, I share the same feelings. Marriage is an impossibility for us; we’re unemployed; just coming out of studenthood; still living at home with our parents. We’re at a point in our lives where everything is frozen up in the air. If this was 20 or 30 years ago, I think we’d probably already be married with children, in our own place by now. Essentially, Paul is uncomfortable with the fact that this is his first serious relationship. Its mine too, but for whatever reason the fact that there might be ‘other things’ out there doesn’t bother me. We spoke for a long time about there being a statistic somewhere that couples whose first serious ...

Well, Honours is over. Yesterday I did my presentation, and although I was the only person who talked without a PowerPoint Presentation, I did ultimately end up feeling pretty confident about my project as a whole. A number of people had clearly rushed their assignments- they were making grand statements about South African society and consumption based on surveys of a grand total of 10 people. What a representative sampling of South African society. Anyway, now I wait until towards the end of December for my marks. As for my plans for the future, I’m not rushing into the job market just yet. I’m certainly updating my CV, but I have assorted little projects, both for money and passion, to occupy me for December and into the New Year. Oh, and everyone go out and buy the December edition of South Africa’s PC Format. In it you will find a new gaming mag called GEAR. And in it you will find a column written by moi. Of course, I have yet to see what it looks like. I’ve been promised a free ...

After a few weekends of nun-like confinement, I actually had a busy weekend. Starting on Thursday night, Paul and I were invited to the Christmas Party of the logistics company Paul does tech support for. We went to The Barnyard for Those Were the Days- The 60’s tribute musical. Actually, let me rephrase that. We were picked up at Paul’s place and bussed by hired couriers to Gateway, picking up staff members along the way. Staff members, may I add, who jumped into the car with a cooler box of booze and started dishing out drinks. At the Barnyard we were treated to a free show, free food, free drinks, as well as R50 Pavilion gift vouchers each. After my EvilCorp experiences of 2004, it was weird to be in the presence of a company where people actually are treated well and enjoy working there. Nothing much happened on Friday evening. I sat at home sketching the next Girlz N Games (with dialogue I am still agonizing over), eating popcorn and watching Pearl Harbour, for the second time. Al...

Like I posted the other day, my copy of Christopher Hart's Drawing Cutting Edge Comics arrived the other day (I adore online shopping). It really is a very handy reference book, and best of all it it's in the contemporary comic-book style. So many of the How To Draw Comics books I've seen tend to be outdated in terms of style- very 1970s to early 1980s, where all the women have that Bridget Bardot look. Anyway, I've been doing a few sketches, and here's my heroine (resurrected and in a trendy new outfit since I came up with her back in 1993), in pencil, and digitally coloured. Thanks to Shirlz for solving the Photoshop setting mystery that threatened to put me off colouring in the image.

This survey thingie is doing the rounds at the moment, so here is my response, after some long thinking sessions: 7 Things to do before I die Write and have a novel published Learn a martial art, ideally one with a weapon Lots of international travel (espec. getting to see Greece, Italy, Egypt and Romania) Sky dive or bridge jump Get my Masters eventually Get married (and hopefully stay married) Learn a lifesaving skill (maybe save a life) 7 Things I cannot do Sing Not be competitive Be a fast RTS player Not be generally anxious Not shoot down / be doubtful about opportunities opened up to me Not worry about my health Feel comfortable on a bicycle 7 Things that attract me to the opposite sex Intelligence Sense of humour Smile Arms and hands Chest and shoulders Healthy ambition Tender touch 7 Things I say most often I suppose Hmm What’s that? I don’t know What?! Shit Oh, for God’s sake 7 Celebrity Crushes Hugh Jackman Brad Pitt Ryan Reynolds Chris Evans Michelle Pfeiffer Angelina Jolie ...

Alrighty, I'm about to print my 35 page forum-focused Media essay. Thank God it's over. Now to have it bound and drop it off at university tomorrow. And then spend the rest of the week marking English First Year exams, preparing for my presentation next week Tuesday or Wednesday and sorting out myself for Ashley's party on Saturday- time to raid the costume room at my mother's school again. Anyway, Kalahari.net delivered my ordered goodies today. I am now the owner of my own copy of Frank Miller's Return of the Dark Knight (think Sin City but with Batman as the lead), as well as Christopher Hart's Drawing Cutting Edge Comics . I've always wanted a proper How to Draw Comics book, and this one is amazing- I think Toti Gareth would really like it. It's mostly a book where you you sit, study and copy the templates provided, but there are very thorough looks at anatomy, body proportions and perspective. Plus, there are plenty of examples by excellent artists...

Today (Sunday) was perfect beach weather: clear skies, not too humid and breezless. Naturally I spent the whole day sitting indoors working on my big Media assignment. However, I did finish the 35-page monster today- I have no idea how long it was supposed to be, but they’re academics. It’s their job to read. After I edit the essay tomorrow, it will be over. That is, except for the presentation next week. And except for marking 34 First Year English exam essays. I’m looking forward to the second half of the week. Paul will have handed his Honour Project in by then so he should have returned, at least partially, to his happy joker self. He’s a hermit grump when he has stressful academic work to do. We’re going to the Barnyard Theatre on Thursday evening for the Mainport Africa Christmas function. Paul does tech support for the company and naturally I am doing the girlfriend leech thing and tagging along. I really find it amusing that the company is so good to its employees. Not only is ...

I’m one step closer to freedom. Today was my last English exam for, potentially, a damn long while. At the moment I’m still recovering from the mental exhaustion- writing 2 essays non-stop for 4 hours totally throws you. The physical sensation is something like a head cold layered over severe eye strain. This said, writing English exams at a Post-grad level is somewhat different to Undergrad. For one thing, our exams are open-book, they are conducted in the English Department instead of one of those overwhelming, impersonal hall venues, you can walk around if you want and the lecturers even come to serve you tea. As for the 2 essay I had to write, I don’t think my first one, on Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter was particularly good. I got caught up in the Achebe part of the question when I should have tackled it briefly, and didn’t plan the Ba section properly so I tended to waffle. I only had an hour and a half for the other essay on Frankenstein, bu...

I’ve been studying all week, making summaries in preparation for my English exam on Tuesday. And man, is it boring. I don’t feel at all inspired for writing on Tuesday, and I just want it over with. My mind has already skipped ahead to 28 November when exams will be over and assignments in. There are all sorts of activities I want to do, ranging from video to DVD conversions for Christmas to all sorts of website work, for fun and money. Just to have a study break and get out the house, I went with my mother on Wednesday to the Kloof Library to choose some children’s books to read to her Grade 1 class Paul’s sick with bad flu now. No doubt that translates to a boring weekend, where I’ll be just continuing with my summaries, and hopefully working a bit on my forum project. I still think my immune system is a bit compromised. My dry cough is gone now, with the tightness in my chest, but my throat is still sore at times. And on Tuesday I woke up with my left eye nicely inflamed. Two days o...

The big news of the weekend was Team Pug’s Friday night victory at the Kloof SPCA General Knowledge Quiz. Team Pug, of course, consisted of myself, Paul, Shirley, G, Mark, his sister Diane and Natasha, who found out about the charity fundraiser and spread the news about it. It really was an entertaining evening, and a lot more mentally gratifying than an evening of clubbing. Everyone got to contribute something to the team’s efforts. Shirley, Mark, Diane and Natasha worked hard all evening on the movie title anagrams section. Anyone who is bored may want to try the following out: Tong up Dross oscar Hire dad Rat dialog Lawyers lean rhythm End global yell Shoot genie Speculate shuts us Saltshaker tired roof Treats well Throb gussets Wrangled deep ninth Soppy pin arm Thighs nine Konga crawler cook Lapel scabs Psycho liver bell Clubber that’s fake Deathbed stinky moan Beds my ant G and I did our bit in terms of identifying film posters, and name that tune (with both G and Mark, for Burn r...

I had a very restless, feverish night's sleep on Wednesday and work up in the morning with a sore throat, a tight wheezy chest, nausea and aching guts. I don't know what it is: the change in the weather, the stress of the past few days, a little bit of food poisoning or even just stomach flu. Regardless, I feel physically pretty crap at the moment. I've really hoping it's just going to be one of those 2 day things. I don't want to be sick over the weekend, and I just recovered from a headcold the week before last. In other news, there have been some good things going on (lest you think this blog is just one endless soap opera wallowing in Depression). I finihsed tutoring on Monday (Hooray). I still have to mark their exams, but my major work with them is done. They also filled out course evaluations in the last tut class, and I only had one negative response- namely that I'm boring and the class doesn't participate (how I am responsible for that, I really do...

At 3:35am on Wednesday morning we were woken by the sound of barking dogs and a revving souped-up engine. My father rushed outside to find a gang of car thieves attempting to steal his old Jetta, which for the past year and a half has been parked outside the garage. In a panic my mother and I called the police. As we were phoning my father came back inside to say that the thieves had sped off in their little white / yellow car, leaving the Jetta at the bottom of the road. Its battery was dead (ironically it was supposed to go in today for a new one), and the thieves hadn’t been able to start it. Within 10 minutes the police had arrived to check things out, and patrol the area. But by that stage it was all over. I’m still a bit trembly over the whole incident. I just hope that this second incident in 3 months (my car radio was stolen a little while ago) will clue my parents up about home security. The Jetta needs to be sold. It can’t sit on the driveway tempting any thieves who go past....

This last weekend was a mix of great fun and boredom. Pretty much the whole of last week I had sat at home and not seen anyone, so I was looking forward to socializing and getting out and about. On Friday evening, it seemed like I just swapped the routine’s setting for Paul’s house. I was pretty bummed when we received a call, after 9pm that Gareth was meeting up with G and Shirley at the Pavilion ‘for something’. The fact that they were already having / finishing up with dinner, and about to decide on an activity (which included maybe just going home) meant we didn’t have much time to get there. So Paul and I just ended up lying on the couch watching Ace Ventura: pet Detective and a bit of Dumb and Dumber. On Saturday, after a slow start, Paul and I headed to the Pavilion to do a little shopping. The place was packed with end-of-the-month shoppers and it took a while for us to find parking. The main reason for heading to the Pav was for Paul to buy some new hiking strops, and because ...

I worked at the annual Christmas House in Pinetown on Tuesday evening. Apart from last year I’ve been involved for the last 5 or so years, working at one of the tills. Essentially the name Christmas House pretty much sums up what it is- a whole house is decorated, and crammed, with Christmas related crafts that are all for sale- there are tree decorations, table settings, dolls, teddy bears, cushions, wall hangings, gift bags, candles, tree skirts, fridge magnets, cards, sweets, nativity scenes, novelty gifts etc. There’s tons of stuff, all reasonable priced (Although, the big spenders took some of the most beautiful merchandise home with them on the opening evening). Basically, the sooner you go, the better the selection. And it changes every year. Anyway, it’s fascinating to watch the consumer greed take over, with people spending hundreds to over a thousand rands on Christmas decorations. Many people are there buying for their business or B’n’B, but there are also people splashing o...

Paul’s cousin was away this weekend so a large chunk of the weekend was spent at his place, literally across the road from bar Billy the Bums. We weren’t there much on Friday night however, as we joined the gang at Sibaya Casino for the big Comedy Festival running there. It really was an awesome evening, with a combination of around 8 local and international comedians entertaining us for 2 and a half hours. Angelo the Greek-Canadian MC, and LA resident Pierre were probably my favourites. My least favourite was an Australian comic who was scarily misogynistic- I fully understand that male comedians will use relationships and women as material, and I have no problem with that. I really have no problem with laughing at myself. However, there seemed to be a lot of spite behind his words that pushed the misogyny beyond acceptably funny. On Saturday, Paul was out of the house by 6:30am to travel up to Nottingham Road to do a quote for a prospective client. I was awake too, given the fact tha...

I feel the need to clarify some things in my last post, seeing the strong criticism I received. A) I was writing when I was feeling particularly down and brooding. A day later I have a cold, a burnt mouth and incredibly stiff legs (damn lunges). But despite that, a blog is to vent your personal thoughts and feelings. B)I maintain that I can’t work a fulltime job for a company for R5000 again. I’ve already done it (and at a Godawful dictatorial company as I’m sure Ash and Shirlz will agree). For one thing, it’s a question of quality of life- an 8 to 5 full time job for that amount isn’t worth it. It’s a waste. For another thing, it’s fine and all that if you’re living at home, but when you’re at that age when you want to move out; have some independence; have a real career underway, the money is woefully inadequate of you don’t have a second income coming in, from a partner or room mate. A one-room rented place (apartment or granny flat) ranges from R800 to R2000, depending on the loca...

‘What’s the difference between a BA and a pizza?’ ‘A pizza can feed a family of 4.’ There are several jokes like this. And I’m bringing them up because I had a pretty crap Monday and most of it centres around my future. To start off I basically had to face an inquisition when I approached the Financial Aid / Bursaries office to draw 2 scholarships out of student account and put the money in my bank account. I have to ask permission of the office to do this. Now the big issue is that I received these 2 new scholarships halfway through this year, presumably as a result of my first semester marks. I already had 2 scholarships before this. Now Mr Bursar loads up my details on his PC and hums and ha’s, ‘I’m concerned that we’re giving you so much money’ and ‘Are your marks really that good?’ It sickens me that I have to justify why I should receive the money (which will go towards paying off a hefty chunk of my car to my parents) when I have worked my ass off to deserve it. Scholarships are...