The Long Weekend: Friday through Monday
I think Tuesday’s massive Coca Cola Colab Concert in Durban deserves its own blog entry, so I’ll do just that. But I have just had a 4 day weekend (we had Monday off because the office was being fumigated), so there is more than enough to cover.
Friday evening:
The evening didn’t start off the best when I arrived home to find a mailed reminder that I needed to get a new drivers licence… a reminder that arrived a month and a half late. What a clever little money making scam. A driver’s licence is not something that you regularly check. At least with a car licence you know it’s an annual thing.
So I went off to Lara’s St Patrick’s Day party fuming, and worried, about fines for being late with my renewal. I cheered up as the evening progressed. Bronwyn and John wee there and it was good catching up with them before they head off to the Netherlands at the end of March for 4 or so years.
With all the chatting, what was planned as an early night for Paul and myself ended up being much longer. I was only dropped off at home close to 1am. And Paul had to navigate his way back to his place on 3 hours’ sleep from the night before.
Saturday:
In the morning I headed to town to have some ID photos taken. We also popped in at the pharmacy, and while my mother was buying some cough mixture (finally), I found some new ear plugs. Now for those of you who immediately respond, ‘Ear plugs are just for swimming and noisy industrial work’, you’re wrong. The soft sponge ones really help you sleep. My problem is that when I wake up early, I struggle to fall back asleep again- any non-white noise, particularly traffic, irritates me and keeps me conscious. Ear plugs, while not entirely deafening you, mute that low level noise, allowing you to fall back to sleep.
Anyway, I played a bit of Max Payne 2 in the early afternoon (after the first one, I find it very strange that you have access to most of the weapons from early on in the game), and then headed to Paul’s. His parents were away so we had the house to ourselves, and it was nice to just veg and cuddle on the couch while watching mind numbing History and Discovery Channel.
We started to watch Evil Dead but Paul’s DVD player was very sensitive to the scratched copy so that attempt ended after about 5 minutes when the movie shuddered to a halt. We then moved on to Evil Dead II but talk about suiting the label ‘Cult movie’- it made absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Sunday:
On Sunday, Paul and I headed down the coast to Shelly Beach where my grandfather is staying while he is over on holiday from the UK. During the journey down I had the minor success of getting Paul to admit that Good Charlotte (who are a slightly more rock-heavy, mature version of Simple Plan) is decent; listenable.
The day was a pleasant family gathering- lots of talk, sitting in the sun and cold meats and salad for lunch. Plus, the relatives my grandfather and his wife are staying with have 3 Pekingese (the shorter haired variety), 2 of which are 9-month old puppies. Pekingese are personality-strong little dogs, a bit more regal than pugs. We used to have one, and my father’s mother used to breed them. According to Chinese mythology they are a cross between a lion and a monkey. I can’t find any decent pics on the Internet, so I’ll just have to slot in the photos I took tomorrow.
Monday:
A day off, but I was still up early to head to the Pinetown Traffic Department and renew my licence. It took me around an hour to navigate the muddled queues of people, and go through the process of having my eyes tested, finger prints taken, and queuing to see the cashiers, who are still the same people as when I did my licence 5 years’ back (how can anyone handle government inefficiency that long?). For whatever reason (maybe just incompetence), they didn’t notice I was late renewing my licence, so I didn’t pay any fines on top of the renewal fee.
Now if you think governmental traffic departments are hopelessly inefficient (why do we have to resubmit everything 5 years when our details must already be on a database?), then you haven’t seen anything until you’ve been in a police department. Going to the Vehicle Accidents room to get a photocopy of the case report for insurance, I was shocked to find that there are no computers. Just piles and piles of paperwork. A single woman keeps track of dockets and reports in a ledger. That’s it. Left alone in the room I could have switched file contents, or caused a fire, destroying case information forever.
After popping in at a panel beaters for a quote, I got sorted out for Internet banking at ABSA. Paul had been telling me all kinds of rubbish about how expensive it is. His exaggerated claims of R120 a month turned out in reality to be R20 a month, and that includes cellphone banking as well. I’m also thinking about getting a credit card before the end of the month. There’s a special on at the moment where the annual fee is free, and the interest reduced. Time to build up my credit reputation, me thinks.
After that constructive morning I coloured in my latest Girlz ‘N’ Games- it should be online as of tomorrow. I also got a bit more into Max Payne 2. It’s improved as I’ve played more but it isn’t as good as the first. The whole cheesy noir effect this time seems forced and the Norse mythology that underpinned the names, and events of the first game, so that they acted as a cohesive whole, is missing. Still the funhouse scene is very atmospheric, and there are some nice new additions- you don’t have to change weapons to throw grenades or Molotov cocktails (they’re now Mouse Button 3), and in certain scenes you have support characters to talk to you and back you up. Max Payne is much more of a social experience this time around, instead of a loner in a desolate world.
In the evening Paul picked me up and we joined Bronwyn and John for their farewell at Mimmo’s Pavilion. Kate, Kirsten, Warren, Gareth and Denbeigh were there. Once again Mimmo’s Pavilion proved to be the weakest of the 3 restaurants in the Natal franchise. They positioned our table too close to the waiters’ little path from the kitchen, with the result being a backful for milkshake for Denbeigh. Then they forgot Paul’s order. And many of us received mildly warm pizzas, skimpy on the toppings and burnt around the edges.
It was a pleasant evening although I spent a good portion of my evening with my back to Paul. He had been obnoxious, rude and plain difficult since he had picked me up. And having just had a rather stressful second half of last week, I was in no mood for, among other things, ridiculous comments about a cap in a cartoon and how it should have a curved peak. He did at least eventually work out that I was unimpressed and apologised after asking me what the matter was. Things came right.
Anyway, I’m not going to end this entry on a dour note. Bronwyn, welcome to the world of blogging. I hope you keep it up. And feel free to treat it like a group email both in content and writing style.
Friday evening:
The evening didn’t start off the best when I arrived home to find a mailed reminder that I needed to get a new drivers licence… a reminder that arrived a month and a half late. What a clever little money making scam. A driver’s licence is not something that you regularly check. At least with a car licence you know it’s an annual thing.
So I went off to Lara’s St Patrick’s Day party fuming, and worried, about fines for being late with my renewal. I cheered up as the evening progressed. Bronwyn and John wee there and it was good catching up with them before they head off to the Netherlands at the end of March for 4 or so years.
With all the chatting, what was planned as an early night for Paul and myself ended up being much longer. I was only dropped off at home close to 1am. And Paul had to navigate his way back to his place on 3 hours’ sleep from the night before.
Saturday:
In the morning I headed to town to have some ID photos taken. We also popped in at the pharmacy, and while my mother was buying some cough mixture (finally), I found some new ear plugs. Now for those of you who immediately respond, ‘Ear plugs are just for swimming and noisy industrial work’, you’re wrong. The soft sponge ones really help you sleep. My problem is that when I wake up early, I struggle to fall back asleep again- any non-white noise, particularly traffic, irritates me and keeps me conscious. Ear plugs, while not entirely deafening you, mute that low level noise, allowing you to fall back to sleep.
Anyway, I played a bit of Max Payne 2 in the early afternoon (after the first one, I find it very strange that you have access to most of the weapons from early on in the game), and then headed to Paul’s. His parents were away so we had the house to ourselves, and it was nice to just veg and cuddle on the couch while watching mind numbing History and Discovery Channel.
We started to watch Evil Dead but Paul’s DVD player was very sensitive to the scratched copy so that attempt ended after about 5 minutes when the movie shuddered to a halt. We then moved on to Evil Dead II but talk about suiting the label ‘Cult movie’- it made absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Sunday:
On Sunday, Paul and I headed down the coast to Shelly Beach where my grandfather is staying while he is over on holiday from the UK. During the journey down I had the minor success of getting Paul to admit that Good Charlotte (who are a slightly more rock-heavy, mature version of Simple Plan) is decent; listenable.
The day was a pleasant family gathering- lots of talk, sitting in the sun and cold meats and salad for lunch. Plus, the relatives my grandfather and his wife are staying with have 3 Pekingese (the shorter haired variety), 2 of which are 9-month old puppies. Pekingese are personality-strong little dogs, a bit more regal than pugs. We used to have one, and my father’s mother used to breed them. According to Chinese mythology they are a cross between a lion and a monkey. I can’t find any decent pics on the Internet, so I’ll just have to slot in the photos I took tomorrow.
Monday:
A day off, but I was still up early to head to the Pinetown Traffic Department and renew my licence. It took me around an hour to navigate the muddled queues of people, and go through the process of having my eyes tested, finger prints taken, and queuing to see the cashiers, who are still the same people as when I did my licence 5 years’ back (how can anyone handle government inefficiency that long?). For whatever reason (maybe just incompetence), they didn’t notice I was late renewing my licence, so I didn’t pay any fines on top of the renewal fee.
Now if you think governmental traffic departments are hopelessly inefficient (why do we have to resubmit everything 5 years when our details must already be on a database?), then you haven’t seen anything until you’ve been in a police department. Going to the Vehicle Accidents room to get a photocopy of the case report for insurance, I was shocked to find that there are no computers. Just piles and piles of paperwork. A single woman keeps track of dockets and reports in a ledger. That’s it. Left alone in the room I could have switched file contents, or caused a fire, destroying case information forever.
After popping in at a panel beaters for a quote, I got sorted out for Internet banking at ABSA. Paul had been telling me all kinds of rubbish about how expensive it is. His exaggerated claims of R120 a month turned out in reality to be R20 a month, and that includes cellphone banking as well. I’m also thinking about getting a credit card before the end of the month. There’s a special on at the moment where the annual fee is free, and the interest reduced. Time to build up my credit reputation, me thinks.
After that constructive morning I coloured in my latest Girlz ‘N’ Games- it should be online as of tomorrow. I also got a bit more into Max Payne 2. It’s improved as I’ve played more but it isn’t as good as the first. The whole cheesy noir effect this time seems forced and the Norse mythology that underpinned the names, and events of the first game, so that they acted as a cohesive whole, is missing. Still the funhouse scene is very atmospheric, and there are some nice new additions- you don’t have to change weapons to throw grenades or Molotov cocktails (they’re now Mouse Button 3), and in certain scenes you have support characters to talk to you and back you up. Max Payne is much more of a social experience this time around, instead of a loner in a desolate world.
In the evening Paul picked me up and we joined Bronwyn and John for their farewell at Mimmo’s Pavilion. Kate, Kirsten, Warren, Gareth and Denbeigh were there. Once again Mimmo’s Pavilion proved to be the weakest of the 3 restaurants in the Natal franchise. They positioned our table too close to the waiters’ little path from the kitchen, with the result being a backful for milkshake for Denbeigh. Then they forgot Paul’s order. And many of us received mildly warm pizzas, skimpy on the toppings and burnt around the edges.
It was a pleasant evening although I spent a good portion of my evening with my back to Paul. He had been obnoxious, rude and plain difficult since he had picked me up. And having just had a rather stressful second half of last week, I was in no mood for, among other things, ridiculous comments about a cap in a cartoon and how it should have a curved peak. He did at least eventually work out that I was unimpressed and apologised after asking me what the matter was. Things came right.
Anyway, I’m not going to end this entry on a dour note. Bronwyn, welcome to the world of blogging. I hope you keep it up. And feel free to treat it like a group email both in content and writing style.
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